US-Ukraine conclude “substantive” third round of talks as Washington pushes for trilateral with Russia

Kyiv : US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pushed for Kyiv and Moscow to come to the table after they held “substantive” discussions with Ukrainian officials, CNN reported.
The visit by the two key Trump aides is the first to Kyiv since the conflict broke out. While no major breakthroughs were announced after Sunday’s talks, Witkoff said he was “confident that there’ll be a good resolution here.”
The talks followed rigorous meetings Witkoff and Kushner held with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on September 5, part of a renewed push by the US to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“One thing Steve (Witkoff) and I really thought would be productive is to go back to the trilateral format, which we were able to do about six months ago,” Kushner said in a news conference following the talks in Kyiv, as per CNN.
Kushner further said that he prefers trilateral talks as they allow all parties to communicate directly, without the US having to speak for Ukraine or Russia. “Everyone was speaking, you know, in Russian to each other and really discussing these issues in a very actually friendly manner, all in Russian,” he said of previous rounds of trilateral negotiations.
While adding that Washington has spoken to both parties about this idea, he added, “Hopefully we’ll have progress on that very soon.”
Speaking about his recent visit to Russia, Witkoff said his team had a “good, concrete conversation” with Putin.
“If you don’t have relationships with both sides, and you have poor communication, then you probably have very, very little chance of getting to a peaceful resolution,” Witkoff said.
CNN reported that the US-Ukraine talks concluded on Sunday evening local time after two rounds of discussion, followed by a third round of negotiations with European representatives.
As per the American broadcaster, officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany were present in Kyiv, according to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said Ukraine, Europe and the US planned to meet again “in the near future.”
In a post on X, the Ukrainian President shared snippets from the joint press conference with Kushner and Witkoff, where he called all three rounds of talks “very substantive”
“All of them were very substantive. I want to thank Steve and Jared for coming. And we are grateful to the President of the United States. We had good discussions. Thank you for devoting sufficient attention today to the winter period and all the challenges that may arise. We hope that we will be able to reach arrangements with our American partners in this domain, and we hope for the support of European partners,” he wrote on X.
Zelenskyy also reiterated the call for strengthening the country’s defence and energy sector with the help of American and European partners.
During the visit of the American envoys, Russia and Ukraine enacted a 72-hour temporary ceasefire, specifically halting airstrikes on each other’s capitals. CNN reported, citing Ukraine’s Air Force, that Russian strikes continued while avoiding Kyiv.