US envoys headed to Russia and Ukraine to relaunch mediation

United States envoys are expected to arrive in Kyiv and Moscow over the weekend, in an apparent bid to revive negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be in Moscow on Saturday and Sunday, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Friday, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the two would make their first-ever visit to Ukraine on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump told reporters later on Friday that his two envoys were bringing with them a proposal “to end the war” in Ukraine.

Trump would not say whether the plan involved Ukraine ceding territory as he has previously suggested but added: “We have an idea for peace.”

Trump’s envoys were most recently in the Russian capital in January.

However, Washington’s mediation efforts have all but halted since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran in March.

The talks come as both sides continue to exchange attacks, with Russia hitting the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security services on Friday.

Zelenskyy expressed that Kyiv will not be launching strikes over the course of Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to Russia, and called on Moscow to take mirror steps in this context when the envoys arrive in Ukraine.

“Our goal is the most constructive, meaningful visit and negotiations with the American side. We need to look for real options to bring this war to an end. We’ll see what proposals Steve and Jared have and what Moscow will say to them,” Zelenskyy added in a video address on Friday.

A day prior, Zelenskyy was enthusiastic in announcing the return of US-backed talks, despite Washington having previously been accused of adopting Russian narratives and demands for ending the war, primarily that Kyiv should hand over territory.

The Ukrainian president said in a late-night address on Thursday that his country’s negotiating team is in near-constant contact with the US side and preparing for talks.

‘New dynamic’

TASS said Witkoff and Kushner – respectively, Trump’s real estate partner and son-in-law – will first arrive in Moscow.

Following their last visit to Moscow, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov described talks as constructive, but said that “reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had said recently that negotiations were “frozen”.

However, speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East on Thursday, he said that a number of countries, including the US and China, are ready to support a peace deal, and hinted at possible progress.

“We are grateful to everyone attempting ⁠to contribute to a settlement,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency. “Is there a chance? In my view, yes, there is.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha earlier told reporters in Kyiv that he saw a “new dynamic” ⁠coming in peace efforts, with more active political and diplomatic engagement.

Strikes persist

However, in the eight months since Witkoff and Kushner were last in Moscow, Russia and Ukraine have ramped up air attacks deep inside the other’s territory and at sea, as well as the fighting along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said on Friday that a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security services in central Kyiv.

At least 12 people were injured in the strike, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, without giving details on whether the casualties were in the SBU building.

Foreign Minister Sybiha condemned the attack, saying it was “a major escalation that demands resolute responses”.

In a post on social media, Sybiha said: “Moscow launched this strike during a renewed push for peace – laying bare its true rejection of diplomacy.”

Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said that while people weren’t shocked the SBU building was hit, it has made them wonder what target might be next.

“It’s not so much that people never expected the SBU to be hit, but it really raises the question of if Russia can hit this, what else can it hit?” she said, adding that the question today on everyone’s mind is “about just how much things will escalate”.

“Some people here are wondering whether this attack, for example, could be aimed at possibly dissuading” the US envoys’ trips to Ukraine, said MacAlpine.

Moscow’s forces have relentlessly struck civilian areas over the four and a half years since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv mayor Klitschko said 12 people, seven of whom are medical personnel, were injured in a Russian drone attack on the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district on Friday.

A “massive” overnight Russian attack on the southern Odesa region also killed one person and injured at least five others, including a child, regional head Oleh Kiper said in a post on Telegram. The attacks damaged multiple residential buildings, including two multistorey blocks.

Strikes in Dnipro in the east killed two police officers, officials said, while a drone attack in Kyiv injured three people after hitting a residential building.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to concentrate strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure and other economic targets, as it seeks to drain Moscow’s funding for its war and encourage public anger over the conflict and its impact on the Russian population.

A large-scale Ukrainian drone strike hit the Black Sea resort city of Sochi and the nearby district of Sirius, regional officials said, with fires reported at both locations.