Witkoff confident of ‘good resolution’ after Kyiv meeting, as US pushes for trilateral talks with Russia

US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pushed for a return to trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine on Sunday after “substantive” discussions with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv.

It marks their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war began and comes amid near-constant Russian missile and drone strikes on the city. Although no major breakthroughs were announced after Sunday’s talks, Witkoff said he was “confident that there’ll be a good resolution here.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “several new ideas” were discussed during “good discussions” with the US, but did not expand on what those ideas were.

The talks followed intensive meetings Witkoff and Kushner held with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, part of Washington’s renewed push to end the war in Ukraine.

“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.

Kushner said 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.

He added that the US had spoken with both parties about this idea, adding that “hopefully we’ll have progress on that very soon.” Previous trilateral talks mediated by the US have failed to resolve key issues such as territory and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky agreed, saying that “we must do everything possible to ensure that trilateral meetings take place – or trilateral meetings plus our European partners. We’ll see what Russia agrees to.”

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.