Russian officials, led by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, expressed hope that US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine will resume soon, despite no progress since February. Peskov's comments came after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they discussed restarting stalled negotiations over the 4-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine. The key issue remains Russia's demand that Ukraine give up territory, which Kyiv has rejected. A prisoner exchange deal was also mentioned as an ongoing topic of discussion.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
US President Donald Trump has announced that his special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will visit Russia and Ukraine this weekend to try to broker a peace deal between the two countries.
The pair will first meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday before traveling to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city, on Sunday. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has confirmed that he will meet with Witkoff and Kushner during their visit.
Trump says that the US has a new proposal aimed at ending the war, which is now in its fifth year, but did not elaborate on what the plan entails. The trip comes after several failed attempts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The itinerary for Witkoff and Kushner's trip had been in flux, with some sources suggesting that they may only visit Moscow or that their Kyiv stop could be canceled. However, Trump's announcement suggests that the pair will indeed travel to both cities as planned.
Separately, Trump has announced that he wants European countries to pay back the US for military aid and munitions previously sent to Ukraine, saying that "we'll be asking for that money." This move has been criticized by some as an attempt to shift the burden of supporting Ukraine's defense efforts onto Europe.
Written for “US Effort for Ukrainian Peace” on 2026-09-09,
grounded in this article and the 72 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.15, but none of the 1 quote(s) it offered could be found in the article text, so the score is not published.
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Leaning score withheld for article 7167: no verified evidence · logged 2026-09-09
Russia says it hopes US-mediated talks with Ukraine will resume soon
MOSCOW, Sept 9 -
asserted
talks → say → Ukraine
Russia hopes that U.S.-mediated peace talks on ending the war in Ukraine will resume soon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
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Peskov → hop → Wednesday
No such talks between Russia and Ukraine have taken place since February, but President Donald Trump sent his negotiators to Moscow and then Kyiv at the weekend in a bid to relaunch the stalled process.
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Trump → take → process
Peskov was responding to a comment by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it may be possible to draw up a roadmap to restart talks and work towards an acceptable outcome for both sides.
uncertain
it → respond → sides
A huge gulf remains between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the 4-1/2-year war, with Kyiv rejecting Moscow's demands that it give up more territory.
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it → remain → territory
Peskov said Moscow would not publicly discuss any specifics of a potential settlement, but there was a "confirmed political will" to resume talks.
"We hope that these negotiations will resume in the foreseeable future, and we remain in contact with our American counterparts," he said, a day after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.
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Trump → say → phone
Peskov added that the issue of exchanging prisoners between Russia and the U.S. was "a constant item on the agenda", including between the two presidents.
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issue → add → presidents
He noted that Russia had released one American prisoner, Robert Gilman, at Trump's request last month.
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Russia → note → request
The two countries have traded prisoners at several points in the past few years.
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countries → trade → years
The biggest such deal was in August 2024, when Russia got back eight prisoners held in the West, including a member of its FSB security service convicted of murder in Germany.
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Russia → get → Germany
In exchange, 16 people were released from Russian and Belarusian jails.
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people → release → jails
Among those freed by Moscow were prominent Russian dissidents and three U.S. citizens, including Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich.
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dissidents → free → Gershkovich
