US envoys held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday after meeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow, though analysts cast doubt on a reinvigorated peace initiative that appeared to offer little movement.
Putin told Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that ending the war is “not simple” and touted battlefield successes, while Zelenskyy called for the two leaders to meet directly.
Witkoff asked for both to “make some compromises.”
The first discussions since January come amid an escalating aerial war: On Friday, Moscow struck Kyiv’s security service headquarters for the first time.
“The reality of the current diplomatic push is that it is attempting the same approach to diplomacy that has consistently failed,” the former Australian general Mick Ryan argued.