What Is Known About Whitcoff And Kushner's First Visit To Moscow Since January
- 5.09.2026, 19:51
From the Russian capital, they are scheduled to travel to Kyiv.
On Saturday, U.S. President’s special envoys Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for the third time. The day before, Donald Trump stated that their mission would be to discuss the U.S. “proposal to end the war” with Russian leaders. From the Russian capital, they are scheduled to travel to Kyiv; this will be their first trip to Ukraine, according to the BBC.
The plane carrying Whitcoff and Kushner landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo government airport around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with Whitcoff and Kushner on Saturday.
“We have an idea about peace,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. According to him, Whitcoff and Kushner are heading to Moscow and Kyiv with a proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
The White House chief did not specify exactly what the peace proposals his representatives are set to present entail.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Whitcoff and Kushner will visit Kyiv on Sunday, after first traveling to Moscow.
At the same time, Zelenskyy said that during this visit, Ukraine would not launch strikes against Moscow.
“As was the case during previous diplomatic visits by the American side, we will ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so that the negotiators can arrive safely,” the Ukrainian president said. “We are concerned specifically about them, not about Russia.”
“There will be no airstrikes on our part, and Russia must reciprocate by ensuring a ceasefire—no airstrikes of its own—for the time necessary to conduct these negotiations and resolve logistical issues related to this U.S. visit,” — he wrote on social media.
“Our goal is to have as constructive and substantive a visit and negotiations with the American side as possible. We need to look for realistic options on how to bring this war to an end. We’ll see what proposals Steve and Jared have—and what Moscow has to say in response,” the Ukrainian leader added.
The Kremlin did not confirm in advance the statements regarding Whitcoff and Kushner’s arrival, although Russian officials had previously stated on multiple occasions that they were ready for such talks.
Late Friday evening “Ukrainska Pravda,” citing military sources, reported that units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces had received orders to observe a ceasefire along the front lines from 12:00 a.m. on September 5 until 11:59 p.m. on September 8.
Meanwhile, the Russian army continued to launch strikes against Ukraine on the night of September 5. In its morning briefing, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that it had struck two metallurgical plants in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, as well as logistics centers in the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.
By the time Whitcoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow, Peskov reported that Putin had ordered a three-day moratorium on strikes against Kyiv, beginning at 12:00 a.m. on September 6, in preparation for the American delegation’s visit there. Prior to this, the Russian military had been attacking Kyiv and the Kyiv region with jet-powered drones almost continuously for nine days.
Shortly after this announcement from the Kremlin, a new air raid alert was issued in Kyiv and several other regions of Ukraine due to the threat of attacks by jet drones.
Is there any hope for peace?
After Donald Trump took office, the new administration attempted to end the war in Ukraine by putting pressure on both sides; however, these efforts never yielded any tangible results.
In August 2025, Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, after which Russia repeatedly spoke of certain agreements between the leaders reached during the summit.
According to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the discussion centered on the “3 plus 2” formula, which may describe the fate of the five Ukrainian regions that Russia is attempting to annex.
As our correspondent Elizaveta Focht* explained, the number “3” refers to Crimea, the Donetsk region, and the Luhansk region. At present, Russia fully controls the peninsula and insists on the complete transfer of the Donbas territories to it. The number “2” refers to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which the Russian military has only been able to partially capture.
According to foreign media reports and what sources close to the negotiations told the BBC, Russia made it clear in Anchorage that it insists on the full transfer of territories from at least three regions to its control.
At the same time, the Kremlin allegedly agreed to allow Kyiv to retain control over those parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that the Russian army failed to capture. In response, the U.S. was reportedly willing to consider easing sanctions.
However, in the summer, Rubio acknowledged that this plan had not worked because “the Ukrainians did not agree to it,” and called for “new ideas.”
Negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, mediated by the U.S., were suspended in late winter when the U.S. and Israel launched a joint operation against Iran.
Until recently, the Kremlin insisted that the negotiation process remained effectively frozen. “As for peace talks—this issue is currently on hold, and there are no new ideas,” Peskov said on August 28.
At a recent press conference during the SCO summit in Bishkek, Putin reiterated that negotiations to end the war in Ukraine are effectively on hold, but noted that Whitcoff and Kushner are “always welcome guests” in Moscow.
Previous Visits and Ratcliffe’s Flight
Whitcock and Kushner have already traveled to Moscow together twice for negotiations—in early December 2025 and late January 2026. For Kushner, the December trip to the Russian capital was his first as part of the U.S. negotiating team. Whitcoff had previously met with the Russian side on multiple occasions without him. If the trip takes place, it will be the first time both envoys have visited Kyiv.
A Reuters source reported, however, that Moscow opposed Whitcomb and Kushner’s trip to Kyiv. “The Russians don’t want them to visit Kyiv and are trying to get them to change their plans,” the source told the agency.
Western media outlets note that the previous evening, on Friday, the Russian military struck the office of the head of the SBU in central Kyiv (the acting head of the security service, Oleksandr Poklad, was not there at the time). Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga called this a serious escalation and stated that the attack was carried out “at a time when efforts to achieve peace were resuming.”
Earlier, as reported by the media, the Trump administration had already asked Kyiv to halt strikes on Moscow during the unannounced visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, which took place on August 26.
According to sources cited by Axios, one of the goals of Ratcliffe’s visit was to determine whether Russian intelligence chiefs could help persuade Vladimir Putin to resume negotiations with Ukraine under U.S. mediation.
Following the visit, according to the publication, U.S. officials briefed Zelenskyy on its details and on the U.S. proposal to hold a trilateral summit.