Kremlin plans to press on with war in Ukraine despite US talks

Bloomberg News on Sep 7, 2026

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President Vladimir Putin remains committed to continuing Russia’s war in Ukraine after his latest meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with the discussions.

There was no breakthrough at the Kremlin talks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive. Putin is determined to seize control of all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and believes Russia’s army can achieve this goal in the next six months, they said.

It’s possible there’ll be a phone call between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on the weekend’s diplomacy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, according to Interfax. He didn’t rule out a resumption of trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. though he said it’s too early to discuss the timing or any venue, the news service reported.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov called Saturday’s talks “substantive, constructive, extremely frank and trusting” in a briefing after Putin met Witkoff and Kushner for more than three hours. The U.S. envoys traveled on from Moscow for their first visit to Kyiv on Sunday where they held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We had progress in Moscow,” Witkoff said at a press briefing later. “We have new ideas, and we brought them to Kyiv.”

Zelenskyy appeared more cautious about the outcome of the talks, which also included national security chiefs from the U.K., France and Germany in Kyiv. He saw no quick end to the war, with Ukraine preparing for another tough winter ahead and looking to bolster air defenses against Russian attacks.

“The most important thing is to continue working together actively to keep diplomacy going,” Zelenskyy said Monday in a post on social media. “We are preparing the next meetings and communications.”

European Union Economy and Productivity Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis held online talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi on Monday to discuss Ukraine’s financial needs in 2026-2027 “as projections indicate the aggressor Russia will continue waging its war throughout next year,” according to a statement from the commission.

The renewed burst of diplomacy comes after U.S.-led negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine that’s now in its fifth year largely ground to a halt from February as Trump focused on the conflict with Iran.

As the U.S. envoys were in Kyiv, the far-right Alternative for Germany, which wants to restore ties with Russia, secured its best-ever result in a German state election, winning 44% in Saxony-Anhalt. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters Monday that “this day not only changed things in Saxony-Anhalt, but also Germany as a whole.”

Putin insists Ukraine must surrender the remainder of its eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal to end the war. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected the demand to hand over a fortress belt of cities in that region, which Russian forces have failed to capture in fighting dating back to 2014.

Territorial issues should be resolved at the “leader level,” Zelenskyy said Sunday.

—With assistance from Jorge Valero.