They went to Ukraine on the ‘peace express.’ Detours are likely ahead

KYIV, Ukraine — The Americans arrived on a train that the Ukrainians called the “peace express.” Yet nothing about the process of ending the war with Russia has been fast or direct, and there is no sign that will change anytime soon.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went to Ukraine on Sunday fresh off a trip to Moscow bearing what President Donald Trump said was a proposal to end nearly five years of war.

But the Trump administration itself, consumed by its war with Iran, had allowed the peace process to enter such a deep freeze that the trip was just a preliminary step — talks about how to resume talks. And President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said it appeared that the war would continue at least into what analysts say could be a devastating winter for the country.

“It’s a very, very hard problem, but we’re going to try,” Kushner said of negotiations to end the war. “And I think if we can achieve that, it’d be an incredible thing. That doesn’t mean we will achieve it, but it’s very important to try.”

Kushner said “new ideas” were presented to Zelensky in a series of discussions Sunday. He gave no details and also declined to give a timeline for reaching any potential settlement.

The Ukrainian leader offered little more detail about the talks with the Americans. “All the possibilities” for resuming negotiations were discussed, he said at a news conference after the meetings, as were “several genuinely new ideas.”

When pressed on when further talks would be held, the responses from Witkoff, Kushner, and Zelensky seemed to follow a pattern: “Soon” or “hopefully soon.”

Ukrainian officials had been saying before the Americans arrived that they expected negotiations to resume in earnest later this month, after Russian parliamentary elections but before the U.S. midterms.

Those talks, if they happen, would be held alongside an escalation in the air war between Moscow and Kyiv, and a Russian push to accelerate its slow territorial gains in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The war, analysts say, is likely to get only uglier in the months to come, as Russia seeks a knockout wintertime blow against Ukraine and the two sides try to gain the upper hand in eventual settlement negotiations.

While it remains to be seen if peace negotiations can be revived after a six-month lull, the visit by Witkoff and Kushner was meaningful for Ukraine because it finally brought the two Americans out of a Moscow bubble.

The envoys’ visit to Kyiv, which ended late Sunday, was their first after several trips to Russia. It gave the Ukrainians the chance to show, and not just tell, as they try to make their case and ensure that the Trump administration does not revert to clearly favoring Russia in talks, as it did earlier in the process.

The Ukrainians started serving up symbolism before the envoys even reached Kyiv. A refined meal was laid out on the train ride for Witkoff, a known gourmand, and Kushner. It included a selection of Crimean Tatar dishes, highlighting Ukraine’s ties to the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed more than a decade ago.

Upon arrival, Zelensky greeted the envoys on the landmark Sophia Square, whose display of tributes to fallen soldiers is impossible to ignore, then brought them into the historic cathedral, a symbol of Ukrainian national identity.

Zelensky’s negotiator later wore a joke T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Kyiv Regime” — poking fun at the sneering term used by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to refer to Ukraine’s government.

Zelensky offered jokes, too, in telling Witkoff and Kushner to “come more often,” since the Kremlin agreed to temporarily halt during their trip what have been especially intense all-day strikes on Kyiv.

For many Ukrainians, that was the best and only anticipated result, at least in the near term.

“Thank you dear Steve and thank you dear Jared for giving us this afternoon without air-raid alerts,” a Kyiv tour guide, Dmytro Soloviov, said with a touch of sarcasm while leading a walking tour of the city’s architecture.

Yana Vilimetova, a procurement manager, said Ukrainians would use the brief respite to recharge a little. It felt like Groundhog Day to many — another flurry initiated by the Americans, with little expectation of any change in Putin’s determination to continue fighting.

“We’ll just sleep for three days without strikes, reset our mental health during these days, and that’s it,” Vilimetova said.

While no one expects a lasting ceasefire anytime soon, a placard on the dining car table in the U.S. envoys’ train offered a hopeful thought.

“Peace,” it read, “arrives on time.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.