The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the envoys of his American counterpart Donald Trump took place on Saturday, September 5, at the Kremlin for three hours. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner presented a proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for more than four years. Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov described the conversation as constructive, extremely frank and based on trust, adding that the Russian side expressed confidence in achieving the defined objectives. It was planned that both envoys would travel to Kyiv on Sunday to present the plan to the Ukrainian side.
On Friday night, Kyiv's airports were targeted by Russian air strikes, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered to be an attempt by Russia to prevent the visit of the American representatives. Russian attacks continued throughout the weekend, killing at least seven people, two in the Bucha district and five in the Dnipro region. On Friday, the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Services in Kyiv was hit by a Russian drone, causing 15 wounded.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had ordered a three-day suspension of air strikes on Kyiv to allow time for the talks. Zelensky had assured that Ukraine would not bomb Russian territory during the negotiations and asked Moscow to guarantee a mutual ceasefire for the necessary time for its realization.
Since his return to the White House in January 2025, Donald Trump has initiated several rounds of negotiations to try to find a solution to the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War II, but without concrete results so far. Trump did not specify whether the proposal involves territorial concessions by Ukraine to Russia, having only declared that they have "an idea for peace" and attributed the war to a "personality problem" between Zelensky and Putin.
