US envoys revive Ukraine talks, but Europe retains leverage over any Russia deal
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have ended a two-capital diplomatic mission without an announced breakthrough, leaving territorial disputes unresolved and underlining Europe’s unavoidable role in any settlement involving sanctions or security guarantees.
President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have completed talks in Kyiv after meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow, reviving a negotiating process that had largely stalled but producing no publicly identified compromise on the central disputes between Russia and Ukraine.
The two envoys met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday, 6 September, after spending three hours with Putin at the Kremlin the previous day. It was their first visit to the Ukrainian capital in their capacity as US negotiators.
Witkoff said the Americans had heard “new ideas” in Moscow and expected another round of US-mediated talks involving Russia and Ukraine to be announced soon. Zelenskyy described the Kyiv discussions as substantive and said Ukraine was prepared to return to a trilateral negotiating format. The talks in Kyiv also covered air defence, energy support and preparations for winter.
But the renewed diplomatic activity has yet to narrow the most difficult political differences.
The future of Donbas remains among them. Moscow has demanded that Ukrainian forces withdraw from territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia claims but has not captured. Kyiv continues to reject such a withdrawal. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the question of Donbas was effectively “the question of this war”.
There was equally little indication from Moscow that Putin had revised Russia’s broader negotiating position. Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said after Saturday’s meeting that Putin had discussed Russia’s assessment of the battlefield and remained confident of achieving Moscow’s objectives. The Kremlin has continued to refer to the need to address what it calls the “root causes” of the conflict, terminology associated with Russian demands extending beyond the disposition of territory.
The meeting nevertheless covered more than Ukraine. Russian officials said potential future economic co-operation between Moscow and Washington was also discussed, suggesting that the Kremlin continues to view relations with the United States as a broader bilateral agenda rather than solely as a channel for negotiations with Kyiv.
For European governments, Sunday’s meeting in Kyiv was therefore important in its own right. National security advisers from Britain, France and Germany joined the final part of the discussions. Zelenskyy said the talks covered possible security and economic guarantees, as well as plans for Ukraine’s post-war recovery.
Europe’s involvement cannot easily be separated from the substance of any eventual settlement.
The EU controls a large sanctions regime covering Russian finance, energy, trade, technology and other sectors. In July, the Council adopted its 21st sanctions package, adding restrictions against Russian banks, energy interests, shadow-fleet vessels and entities involved in sanctions circumvention. The latest EU package expanded restrictions on Russia’s financial and energy sectors.
Any political bargain involving the easing of EU sanctions would consequently require European agreement. EU sanctions decisions are taken unanimously by the Council, meaning Washington cannot independently offer Moscow relief from measures imposed by the 27 member states.
The same applies, in a different form, to security guarantees. European states are already central to Ukraine’s military support and would be expected to carry a substantial part of any future arrangement intended to deter another Russian attack.
The diplomatic activity has also taken place while the war continues.
Russia and Ukraine temporarily suspended attacks on each other’s capitals during the American mission, but fighting continued along the approximately 1,200-kilometre front and Russian strikes continued elsewhere in Ukraine. Kyiv, meanwhile, has intensified long-range attacks on Russian oil infrastructure.
That contrast is likely to shape European assessments of what follows. The immediate result of the Witkoff-Kushner mission is not an agreement but the possible restoration of a negotiating mechanism.
Whether that mechanism develops into negotiations over a ceasefire or political settlement will depend on whether Moscow and Kyiv alter positions that remain far apart. For the moment, the United States has reopened the diplomatic channel. It has not demonstrated that the underlying dispute has become easier to resolve.
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