Why Witkoff and Kushner Flew Back to Moscow and Kyiv

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, visited Kyiv on 6 September, a day after talks in Moscow. Their stated mission was to restart a negotiation process that had stalled after Washington moved away from the framework agreed at the Putin-Trump summit in Anchorage in August 2025.

The pair faced opposite messages. In Moscow, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia briefed them on what he called the army's real successes and the need to remove the root causes of the conflict. In Kyiv, the meeting lasted about four hours and included Volodymyr Zelensky; British, German and French national security advisers unexpectedly joined the final stage. Witkoff described the discussion as very substantive.

The visit was framed by November's US congressional elections. With Trump's approval rating falling and Republican control of Congress at risk, the White House has a strong domestic incentive to show progress toward a diplomatic settlement. Yet Ukrainian negotiators, cited by the Financial Times, believe the conflict is unlikely to end before winter.

The Kremlin's Terms, Washington's Split and Trump's Election Clock

The Kremlin's Version of the New Reality

Moscow is not treating the talks as a return to the Anchorage terms. After Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukrainian strikes had created a new reality, the Kremlin offered its own version: intensified Russian strikes have made Ukraine's military defeat more plausible, and any settlement must reflect Russian conditions. Bloomberg reported that Russia is willing to stop the conflict only on its own terms and that those demands are hardening.

That is a negotiating position, not a verified battlefield fact. What is verifiable is the message: Putin's team wants the US back as a mediator, but a mediator carrying Moscow's preferred outcome to Kyiv, not a neutral broker.

Why Washington's Messages Are Contradictory

The mission exposed a split inside the administration. Rubio has publicly said the US is on Ukraine's side and told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Manila on 23 July that the Anchorage proposals had failed because Ukraine could not accept them. Witkoff and Kushner, by contrast, were received with warm language in Moscow and thanked Putin for a three-day ceasefire and for releasing American Robert Gilman.

This is not necessarily a coordinated good-cop, bad-cop strategy. The envoys' personal channel appears to be rebuilding trust with Moscow, while Rubio's congressional line reassures Kyiv and European allies. Until those two tracks converge, the actual US negotiating position remains ambiguous.

Trump's Electoral Deadline

The timing is important. Trump enters November's congressional elections fighting a war with Iran, friction with European allies and falling ratings. A major diplomatic breakthrough in Ukraine would strengthen Republican positioning, but the substance of these talks indicates a framework is far away. The presence of European security advisers in Kyiv suggests allies are also trying to stay inside the process rather than be presented with a fait accompli.

What to Expect Before Winter and the US Midterms

For policy watchers and businesses exposed to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the useful near-term markers are:

  • Watch the US midterm election calendar, not just the front line. Trump's falling rating and Republicans' control of Congress are a central reason this mission happened now, making November a harder deadline than any diplomatic timetable.
  • Track whether Washington resolves its mediator contradiction. Rubio has said the US is not a mediator, while Moscow insists on US mediation to deliver its terms; that unresolved gap is a better predictor of failure than any single meeting.
  • Do not price in a pre-winter settlement. The Financial Times reports Ukrainian negotiators do not expect the conflict to end before winter, and the Kremlin is hardening, not softening, its conditions.