Putin receives Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin, today the two envoys are expected in Kyiv

On September 5, Vladimir Putin received at the Kremlin Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the US president, and Jared Kushner, appointed peace envoy in February 2026. It is Witkoff’s eighth working visit to Russia and the third trip made together with Kushner, Radio Svoboda reports. Also at the table were presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, special representative for economic cooperation and head of the sovereign fund RDIF: the account from the Kremlin press service lists the same participants.

Before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had refused to anticipate which proposals the Americans were bringing with them. By the end of the day no joint document had been released. What is known of the meeting are, for now, statements from only one of the parties.

What Putin said

The Russian president stated that the Ukrainian side has significantly reduced attacks on Russian regions, including Moscow, precisely coinciding with the presence of the two envoys. He added that Kyiv had publicly called for a broader truce beyond three days, but that on this point there were no agreements with Russia.

“Contacts such as the meetings with Witkoff and Kushner are always useful” (transl. from Russian) — Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation

The Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda reports Putin’s statements as circulated by the Russian state agencies RIA Novosti and TASS: according to that account, attacks on Kyiv had not been carried out since midnight on September 5, and the suspension indicated concerns three days and the two capitals, Kyiv and Moscow. These are attributed statements, not an independently verified fact: Russian state agencies, according to this newspaper’s rules, count as attribution and not as an independent source.

The sticking point, at this hour, is the gap between the two levels. On one side a suspension limited in time and space — three days, two capitals — which according to the Russian version itself would be in effect. On the other, the Ukrainian request, made public, for something broader: and on that, Putin says, there is no agreement.

Today’s step

Witkoff and Kushner were expected in Kyiv on Sunday, September 6, according to Radio Svoboda in Ukrainian. The sequence — Moscow first, Kyiv after — is the same as previous joint trips, and makes today’s day the first moment in which the Russian version of the meeting can be compared with the Ukrainian one.

Until then, three distinct things remain to be noted, which it is useful not to conflate. The first is the meeting, documented by pool images and by two accounts independent of one another. The second is the suspension of attacks: announced by the Russian side, reported as a statement also by Ukrainian media, not verified by third-party observation in the material available. The third is the negotiating content, of which nothing has been made public — neither by the Kremlin nor by the US side.

What we don’t know

We do not know what proposals the envoys brought to Moscow: Peskov had refused to anticipate them and there is no subsequent account describing them. We do not know whether the declared suspension was observed across the entire indicated perimeter, nor whether it covers the rest of Ukrainian territory: the reported wording concerns the capitals. We do not know whether a written text exists — a memorandum, a draft agreement — or whether the talks took place only verbally.

Finally, we do not know the actual duration of the time window: the indicated suspension covers three days starting from midnight on September 5, so the count ends within a few hours of the moment this piece is published. Verification of its observance, and Ukraine’s official position after the Kyiv stop, are the two elements that in the coming hours may shift the picture from statement to fact.

Sources: Radio Svoboda; News.Mail.ru (Kremlin press service); 14.ru; NPR (AP agency); Ukrainska Pravda; Radio Svoboda in Ukrainian. Vladimir Putin’s statements are reported by RIA Novosti and TASS (Russian state agencies) and count as attribution.