Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke on September 3 with two key US special envoys, who told him they will visit Kyiv "in the coming days" and will also travel to Moscow for talks, even as Russia contimued to pound the Ukrainian capital with air strikes.
"I have just held a meeting with the team that is engaged in negotiations with representatives of the president of America," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
"We are in communication with them 24/7 and are now preparing for meetings," he wrote, adding that "there are preliminary dates" for a face-to-face meeting.
Shipspotting Photos Highlight Ferocity Of Black Sea Drone War
![The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Great Ocean, showing damage from an apparent drone strike, is towed through the Bosphorus on August 20.<br><br>Alexa said the list of apparent targets has recently expanded "from tankers to dry-cargo vessels," and the danger for seamen has intensified. Aerial drone strikes targeting accommodation blocks, he said, “were rare before [Ukraine's Operation Molochka]. He added that "Russia has responded in kind, but with fewer merchant ships available as targets it has concentrated more on ports."](https://gdb.rferl.org/fa6a0e47-f224-4d47-2060-08decad58b60_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
"We expect to see representatives...here in Kyiv. This has been confirmed by them, who also said they will have meetings in both Moscow and Kyiv."
"It is important that America remains active. We are ready to meet them in Ukraine for meaningful discussions," Zelenskyy stated.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been acting as the lead negotiators as US President Donald Trump seeks to mediate a peace agreement to end Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Trump has confirmed he will send Witkoff and Kushner to Kyiv in the coming weeks in what would mark their first visit to Ukraine since taking leading roles in the administration's efforts to end the war.
Witkoff and Kushner have traveled to Moscow and met with Russian representatives in the US multiple times during Trump's second term.
"We will see what the US president's envoys can accomplish," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on August 31 after holding a "detailed and constructive" previous call with the two Americans.
But Thomas Melia, a former senior State Department official and currently chairman of the board of the Free Russia Foundation, said it is difficult to see evidence that Moscow is genuinely interested in a negotiated settlement.
“Putin's military continues to inflict unbelievable damage on Ukrainian civilians, blowing up schools and residences and churches," Melia told RFE/RL. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of desire for finding common ground right now.”
Fresh Attacks On Kyiv
The comments came as authorities in Kyiv reported new Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital. The Kyiv military administration initially said one person was killed, but later said that had not been confirmed.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine people were injured. He said said one daytime attack hit a high-rise residential building, causing a fire and badly damaging the structure.
Unverified social media videos showed a large fireball rising from an apartment building.
Russia has been ramping up daytime attacks on Ukraine, frequently targeting the capital, often causing mass casualties as its battlefield progress appears to have slowed amid heavy losses.
Kyiv residents who had grown accustomed to overnight strikes are now attempting to deal with a growing number of Russian attacks during the daytime hours.
Russia has been blasting Ukraine with jet-propelled drones capable of flying nearly twice as fast as older models, forcing Kyiv to adapt defenses in the battle against high-tech weapons.
The Russian Geran-4 drone is yet another modification of the Iranian-origin Shahed, which was provided to Moscow by Tehran in the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In one of the most deadly attacks in the war, a Geran-4 drone struck a munitions warehouse in Myla, a village outside Kyiv, setting off explosions that led to the deaths of at least 38 people near the facility.
Zelenskyy and other officials blasted the authorities who allowed a building storing ammunition to be built so near a residential area.
"A terrible situation and terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people," Zelenskyy said on August 29.
Trump Wants Payback
Away from the battlefield, Trump said he would ask European nations to compensate the US for military aid and munitions previously sent to Ukraine and appeared to suggest further sales of weapons to Kyiv’s allies could be curtailed.
The comments come amid media reports -- denied by Trump -- that US forces are suffering a shortages of munitions because of those utilized in the war with Iran.
"We are stockpiling and preparing for any contingency that could happen. We are taking them [munitions] for ourselves, the U.S.A., rather than selling them to others, but the sales to Allies will soon again, begin."
"The Biden Administration gave far more Munitions away to Ukraine, at no cost to them, whatsoever, than we have used in Iran. Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for -- If they were only asked, but we will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!"
On September 2, however, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington and Kyiv are negotiating a license that could allow Ukraine to produce missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system, reviving an idea that Trump appeared to downplay in early August.
Meanwhile, Norwegian authorities seized a Russian ship in the Arctic on behalf of Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz, which is seeking to enforce a $4.2 billion compensation award for assets that Moscow took when Russia occupied and seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Officials said the Professor Molchanov vessel was seized late on September 2 in Barentsburg, a coal mining settlement that Russia operates on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the terms of a 1920 treaty.
The Kremlin called the ship seizure an act of piracy and said it had summoned the Norwegian ambassador to deliver a protest, setting up another potential flashpoint between NATO and Russia.
"Svalbard...is increasingly becoming a hotspot of geopolitical tensions," the Arctic Institute think tank wrote in November 2025.
"A build-up of forces in the region, military exercises in the Barents Sea and covert operations targeting Svalbard all suggest that the Russian threat is as serious in the High North as it is on the Eastern flank."
