{"id":38331,"date":"2026-09-06T21:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/38331\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:10:07","slug":"kushner-witkoff-really-feel-good-about-ukraine-russia-peace-push-after-zelensky-huddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/38331\/","title":{"rendered":"Kushner, Witkoff ‘really feel good’ about Ukraine-Russia peace push after Zelensky huddle"},"content":{"rendered":"

US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff huddled with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> in Kyiv on Sunday and said they left optimistic that they could move the peace process forward.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s pair of peace pushers previously spent about three hours with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday and expressed hope that they could get a deal going as both warring countries brace for a brutal winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here, and I think we really feel good about what has happened in the conversations in Moscow and now the conversations here,\u201d Witkoff said in Ukraine next to Zelensky. <\/p>\n

(From left) US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. AP Photo\/Francisco Seco<\/p>\n

Sunday marked Witkoff\u2019s and Kushner\u2019s first official visit on the ground in Ukraine. Witkoff made eight previous visits to Moscow to meet with the Russians over the past year and a half.<\/p>\n

Both men have been navigating multiple conflicts in the Middle East at the same time.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kushner briefly acknowledged stumbling blocks in their attempts to usher in peace between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

US and Ukrainian officials are working on a peace plan to try end Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working through some political issues in Israel.<\/a> I think we agree with them on the end state,\u201d Kushner said. \u201cThey just have a crazy election. And that makes them a little irrational in certain regards. But we\u2019re very determined, and we\u2019re working through these things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the way, we\u2019re now starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza. It is beyond your comprehension. And so demilitarization is not going to be easy,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Witkoff\u2019s and Kushner\u2019s trek to Ukraine, the Kremlin carried out strikes on the Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, according to Zelensky. The two US special envoys took a train to Kyiv.<\/p>\n

The US officials said they are optimistic peace can be achieved but offered no specifics on progress. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Putin and Zelensky agreed to a three-day cease-fire starting at midnight Saturday<\/a> to mark the special envoys\u2019 trip to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat President Trump\u2019s been very focused on is how do we create a framework that could actually build lead to a durable peace,\u201d Kushner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing Steve and I really thought would be productive is to go back to the trilateral format, which we were able to do about six months ago, and we\u2019ve spoken with both parties,\u201d Trump\u2019s son-in-law added. \u201cAnd so hopefully we\u2019ll have progress on that very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one publicly disclosed specific details of what a peace plan would look like. Prior proposals ran into headwinds over key sticking points such as control of the Donbas region. Since the war started in 2022, Russia has been unable to take full control of the Donbas by force.<\/p>\n

Zelensky welcomes the special envoys on their first official visit to his country. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP<\/p>\n

Putin has demanded full control, but Zelensky has noted that Ukraine\u2019s constitution precludes the Ukrainian president from surrendering territory. The Ukrainians also fear that surrendering territory that Russia has been unable to fully capture will make them militarily vulnerable if Moscow violates any deal and decides to pursue more land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think President Trump has a track record of doing impossible things,\u201d Kushner said when asked about prior peace efforts that imploded. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how much he\u2019ll get criticized by people in the press or different critics. He wants to go after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development came as US Energy Secretary Chris Wright<\/a> warned that fallout from the war has led to high diesel prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiesel\u2019s been impacted by a lot of factors, but the single biggest one there has been the Ukrainian destruction of Russian refineries,\u201d Wright told CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cRussia was a meaningful exporter of diesel throughout the last several decades. Today, they have banned any exports of diesel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff huddled with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1383,1664,79,25,319,85],"class_list":["post-38331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-foreign-policy","tag-jared-kushner","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-ukraine-war","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}