Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner to travel to Kyiv and Moscow with war-ending plan
US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and Kyiv this weekend carrying a proposal aimed at ending the war, while both sides pledge to halt airstrikes during the trip.
US President Donald Trump has announced that his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will travel to the Russian and Ukrainian capitals carrying a plan that could help end the war. Speaking to reporters, Trump said the two men had done a great job and that there was a good chance progress could be made.
According to the planned schedule, the envoys are due in Moscow on Saturday before heading to Kyiv on Sunday — marking their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since Trump returned to the White House in January last year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the planned visit in a post on social media, saying it was necessary to look for real ways to move the war toward an end. He added that he would wait to see what proposals Witkoff and Kushner bring, and what response they receive in Moscow.
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine's armed forces would ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so the envoys could travel safely. Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, he had warned airlines and insurers that Russian airspace would effectively be closing due to the scale of Ukrainian drone operations, which was making flights unsafe.
However, during the envoys' visit, Ukraine will refrain from strikes, and Zelenskyy called on Russia to do the same. He stressed that this pause applies only for the time needed to conduct the talks and handle related logistics.
Russian strikes kill four
The announcement came after overnight Russian strikes on the city of Kamianske in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region killed four people, according to local authorities. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, said five more people were injured in the strikes, which hit an industrial facility.
On Friday, Zelenskyy said a Russian drone had also struck the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) in central Kyiv, adding that the strike had been aimed directly at the office of the agency's chief. In response, he said he had ordered the SBU to carry out an appropriate, tangible response, where possible one that mirrors the strike.
