UNITED STATES envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kiev on Sunday in a renewed push for peace in the conflict that has raged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The trip by the US delegation follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, as both sides have engaged in escalating aerial attacks recently.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his government is ready for a “constructive” discussion with the US emissaries.

“We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

Washington’s push to end the fighting has lost momentum, with the Trump administration focused for the past six months on the Iran war. 

Saturday’s visit to Moscow by Mr Witkoff, a real estate investor and Mr Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, lasted more than three hours behind closed doors and ended without any major developments being announced. 

Mr Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described the talks as constructive, frank and useful, but he didn’t discuss specific outcomes.

While Moscow offered its “comprehensive assessment” of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, Mr Ushakov said, the talks weren’t purely focused on the war in Ukraine.

“Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail,” he said.

The visit comes as the air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified. 

Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones, and the recurring wail of air-raid sirens has become part of daily life in Kiev.

Both sides had agreed to pause strikes on each other’s capitals while the talks took place although the two still traded fire overnight into Sunday, officials said.

Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed one person and wounded at least 10 others overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Ukraine’s air force claimed on Sunday that it had intercepted 82 drones out of the 108 launched by Russia overnight, along with six missiles.

In Russia, a man was killed and a woman was seriously wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, local authorities in the Belgorod border region said.

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Sunday that its air defences overnight shot down 258 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the waters of the Black and Azov Seas.