Volodymyr Zelensky suggests Ukraine is preparing for another winter at war with Russia despite hosting president Donald Trump’s peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Kyiv yesterday.
Lauding their “very substantive” conversation, Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks involving Russia, the US and Ukraine.
But, he added, “if the war continues into the winter, we are counting heavily on the winter package [of support], which I discussed in detail today with Steve, Jared, and our European partners.
“We are counting on support for air defence and the energy sector, as well as substantial volumes of American LNG and the ability to use them,” Zelensky said after his meeting with the two US officials.
Trump’s son-in-law Kushner and Witkoff met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, after holding three hours of talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Moscow.
Witkoff said he had “heard new ideas” in Moscow and hoped a new round of US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine would be announced “in short order”.
Zelensky said ending the war will ultimately come down to solving the matter of contested territory in eastern Ukraine. “The question of Donbas… I believe, is the question of this war,” he said.
‘Overnight we all became war correspondents’: Ukraine’s local newspapers face battle to stay alive
In the weeks leading up to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the headlines in a Kyiv newspaper looked much like they would anywhere else.
There was some debate over whether Russia would actually attack its neighbour. But then, outside of politics, there was everything else: the tourists stuck abroad, changes to school meals and the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid.
On 24 February 2022, everything changed as Russian tanks rolled across the border. Businesses closed or relocated, martial law saw hundreds of thousands of working-age men recruited for military service, and around one million people fled the country in the first week.
A brave few stayed behind to keep a record of what happened as the missiles rained down. Local journalists observed and asked questions as their communities were torn apart by the war.
Arpan Rai7 September 2026 05:38
Watch: Trump envoys arrive in Kyiv for peace talks after meeting Putin
Arpan Rai7 September 2026 05:19
US peace envoys’ visit to Ukraine sparks cautious optimism on the streets of Kyiv
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have visited Moscow several times in their roles as peace envoys. But Sunday marked their first visit to Kyiv in their capacity as US negotiators.
Their visit has long been sought by Ukraine’s leadership, and on the streets of Kyiv, which has been bombarded heavily in recent weeks, some residents were hopeful.
“The issue can be solved in the blink of an eye. We want peace. I’ve fought myself, so I know what war is like. We need peace, because there’s no other way,” said military veteran Stepan Yermak.
In previous talks, the sides have remained far apart on key issues, including the future of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.
Russia has demanded Ukraine’s withdrawal from a belt of towns that it still controls there, but Kyiv has refused, reasoning that it can still hold on.
“The question of Donbas… I believe, is the question of this war,” Zelensky told reporters on Sunday.
Arpan Rai7 September 2026 04:45
US envoy Witkoff says he ‘feels good’ about Ukraine peace talks
US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he felt good about peace talks in both Moscow and Kyiv.
The senior envoy from the Trump administration who held talks with Ukraine yesterday said that the US hoped to find a diplomatic solution to the war.
Hours earlier, president Volodymyr Zelensky said his talks with US peace negotiators were “very substantial”.
The two sides discussed security and economic guarantees for Ukraine and also supplies of air-defence missiles and a winter support package.
He also hoped that trilateral talks, including Ukraine, Russia and the US would restart soon.
Arpan Rai7 September 2026 04:20
One killed and three injured in Russia-held Sevastopol
A girl was killed and three other people were wounded in a Ukraine drone attack on the Russia-held Black Sea port city of Sevastopol late on Sunday, officials said.
The attack was confirmed by Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev on his Telegram channel.
Arpan Rai7 September 2026 03:59
Zelensky says window of opportunity for peace exists before 2028 US election
The Ukrainian president, who believes Washington will be key to any peace deal, has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the US begins focusing on its next presidential election in 2028.
The US envoys held several hours of talks with Ukrainian officials. British, French and German national security advisers, who were also in Kyiv, joined for the final hour. The US-Ukrainian discussions were due to continue on Sunday evening.
During a break, Volodymyr Zelensky said officials discussed the possibility of security and economic guarantees for Kyiv, as well as a post-war “prosperity plan.”
“In the last 10 to 12 months, I believe we have got stronger,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that the U.S. and Europe had noted this.
Holly Evans7 September 2026 03:00
Read the full story: US envoys meet Zelensky in Kyiv after Putin talks
US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for high-stakes negotiations with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, capping a high-wire weekend of shuttle diplomacy aimed at breaking a long-standing stalemate in the war.
The diplomatic mission follows a three-hour meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow a day earlier, and represents Washington’s most direct effort to revive peace talks since the outbreak of the US-Iran war in February.
The trip marks the American envoys’ first official visit to the Ukrainian capital after traveling by train from Poland, having previously made eight visits to Moscow.
Read the full article here:
US envoys meet Zelensky in Kyiv after Putin talks as frontline battles rage on
The discussions have been described as ‘substantive’ as the US seeks to bridge the chasm between Kremlin demands and Ukrainian red linesHolly Evans7 September 2026 02:00
‘Overnight we all became war correspondents’: Ukraine’s local newspapers face battle to stay alive
In the weeks leading up to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the headlines in a Kyiv newspaper looked much like they would anywhere else.
There was some debate over whether Russia would actually attack its neighbour. But then, outside of politics, there was everything else: the tourists stuck abroad, changes to school meals and the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid.
On 24 February 2022, everything changed as Russian tanks rolled across the border. Businesses closed or relocated, martial law saw hundreds of thousands of working-age men recruited for military service, and around one million people fled the country in the first week.
Read the full article here:
‘We were local journalists in Ukraine. Then overnight we became war correspondents’
Exclusive: Ukrainian media partners with OpenAI in bid to stay profitable as war bitesHolly Evans7 September 2026 01:00
Putin has no interest in peace – and Trump is falling into his trap
Steve Witkoff is the real estate guy with zero diplomatic experience who Donald Trump appointed in 2024 as his personal “peace emissary”.
Jared Kushner is the president’s son-in-law, but did at least play some role in one of President Trump’s few foreign policy achievements – the Abraham Accords process that promised to deliver some stability to the Middle East during the first Trump term. As a team, they have enjoyed little success in securing the “settlement” to the war in Ukraine that Mr Trump so desires.
There is little reason to suppose that their latest exercise in shuttle diplomacy will succeed where their previous efforts failed. Indeed, the prospects for an end to the war, let alone one that will prove just and lasting, are as dismal as at any time since Vladimir Putin launched his ill-fated “special military operation” more than four and a half years ago – its duration now longer than the Soviet Union’s four-year “great patriotic war” against Adolf Hitler.
Just as in that epoch-defining conflict, it is the civilian population of Ukraine that will face some of the harshest consequences as winter approaches.
Read the full editorial here:
Putin has no interest in peace – and Trump is falling into his trap
Editorial: Trump’s latest peace push offers little hope of ending the Ukraine war, with Putin apparently using talks to pursue economic gains while remaining committed to Russian military victoryHolly Evans7 September 2026 00:00
Watch: Trump envoys arrive in Kyiv for peace talks
Holly Evans6 September 2026 23:00NewerOlder