Ukraine and Russia have signaled their readiness to resume trilateral talks under US mediation. For October," said Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian president's office. Similar signals came from Moscow: "We do not rule out such a possibility.
We are talking about the foreseeable future," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner aimed to revive trilateral talks to end Russia's war in Ukraine, visiting Moscow and Kyiv in the first week of September. The last round of trilateral talks took place in January and February 2026 in Abu Dhabi and Geneva, without producing a breakthrough, as the issue of territory control in eastern Ukraine remained unresolved.
Vladimir Putin still demands more territory than Russia currently controls, Kushner confirmed on September 12, speaking online at the YES security conference in Kyiv. "President Putin [has] laid out his line of what he wants to achieve. If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously we have the rest of the deal set up and put together.
Ukraine right now does not want to do that," the US envoy said. The Ukrainian government has indicated it is willing to freeze the fighting along the current frontline in exchange for security guarantees. Such a step could be supported by 60% of Ukrainians, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted in summer 2026.
A similar majority of respondents rejected giving up territory that Russia hasn't been able to conquer. 33% said Ukraine should give up territory that Putin demands. "For there to be a negotiated end to the war, there has to be parity. Right now, there's a stalemate on the front lines and not much is changing there, but in the air war, unfortunately, Russia currently has a significant advantage," Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political scientist, told DW.
Ukraine is running low on interceptors for Russian ballistic missiles. Russia has also stepped up attacks with new jet-powered drones, which fly faster than older gasoline-powered models and are harder to intercept. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russian airstrikes are increasingly targeting Ukraine's economy, including warehouses, energy facilities, gas stations and railway infrastructure.
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