1JUN

Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin with no result

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US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin in Moscow on 5 September and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on 6 September. Moscow announced no result from more than three hours of talks.

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Key takeaway

Three hours with Putin produced no announced result, and Lavrov ruled out pausing operations.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 5 September and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on 6 September, and Moscow announced no result from more than three hours of talks.

Sergei Lavrov told reporters on 12 September that Russia is ready to negotiate but will not suspend military operations while it does. Read that as the Russian position rather than a concession: Moscow treats talking and shooting as compatible policies, so the talks cost the campaign nothing. Zelenskyy has offered to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December.

Washington's involvement has run mostly through weapons rather than terms. Trump and Rutte expanded the allied purchase mechanism in July, and the money has kept moving while the negotiating track has not. Three hours in Moscow produced no communiqué, and no date has been set for a further round.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Two US envoys met separately with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents within a day of each other, but Moscow announced no outcome from the talks. Russia's foreign minister says his country will keep negotiating without pausing its military operations, while Ukraine's president has floated meeting Putin at a global summit in December.

Sources:Associated Press

Mentions:Steve Witkoff →Jared Kushner →Vladimir Putin →Volodymyr Zelenskyy →Miami →Lavrov →Russia →Washington →Kyiv →Ukraine →Moscow →

First Reported In

Update #27 · Russia's rate hold names the fuel shortage

Associated Press· 13 Sept 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin with no result

Sergei Lavrov said on 12 September that Russia will negotiate without suspending military operations, which treats talking and shooting as compatible policies.

Led to

Witkoff's Miami talks end a day early

Witkoff and Kushner returned to Ukraine talks after their September Moscow and Kyiv round produced no announced result.

Occurred 9 Oct 2026

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Different Perspectives

Russia

Russia vetoed the same renewal on 17 September, arguing that Britain, France and Germany never validly triggered the snapback that reimposed the pre-2015 UN resolutions. No panel was ever seated under that mandate, so the UN list decays fastest for states that screen against it rather than against the American one.

China

China vetoed renewal of the UN sanctions monitoring mandate on 17 September, arguing that Resolution 2231 terminated on 18 October 2025 and that the Security Council should drop Iran's nuclear file altogether. On that reading there is nothing to monitor, so the sanctions survive and their enforcement does not.

Iraq

Baghdad saw the last American counter-Islamic State troops leave its territory on 30 September, completing a timetable it agreed with Washington in September 2024. Iraqi airspace deconfliction passes to Baghdad, which still has an open inquiry into the Maysan drone launches that has named nobody.

Pakistan

Treasury names Waseem Pasha Tajammal of Rawalpindi as the Cavalier group's chairman and places one of the designated incorporations in Islamabad. QatarEnergy separately told Pakistan that liquefied natural gas cargo cancellations would run through November, so Islamabad carries an enforcement question and a supply gap at once.

Turkey

Treasury named a Cavalier Dynamics company incorporated in Istanbul among the ten nodes it designated on 29 September, and Ankara has published no response. Turkey imported a record 120,000 barrels a day of Indian diesel in August, cutting Russia's share of its diesel imports to 20 per cent.

India

Suraj Yadav, a wiper from Uttar Pradesh, was killed aboard the Cape Dao on 23 September, and 19 of the ship's 20 Indian crew were taken off alive. India's September imports ran at 575,000 barrels a day from Iraq and 566,000 from Saudi Arabia, back to pre-conflict rates.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.