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 .

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Thursday that US negotiators were set for meetings in both capitals “in the coming days” and that Ukraine is ready for substantive, high-level negotiations.

Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Friday that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would be in Moscow on September 5 and 6.

President Donald 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 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 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.

“They confirmed they will have a meeting in Moscow and another one in Kyiv. We expect the latter to take place in the coming days. This is very important. It is important that America remain actively engaged,” he said, adding that Ukraine is ready for substantive, high-level negotiations.

The TASS report said Witkoff and Kushner – respectively, Trump’s real estate partner and son-in-law – will first arrive in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to confirm reports at a later news briefing.

However, with talks evidently taking place in the background, officials on both sides of the conflict appear to have new hope of progress towards a settlement.

Following Kushner and Witkoff’s 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.

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 five people were wounded in the strike, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

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.

Kyv mayor Klitschko said at least nine people, seven of which 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.