US envoy Kushner: If Ukraine agreed to give up territory demanded by Putin, we would already have a deal

US President Donald Trump's special envoy Jared Kushner has said that the only thing missing for an agreement to end the war is Ukraine's consent to give up its territories within the boundaries demanded by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

Source: Kushner at the annual YES forum in Kyiv on 12 September

Details: Kushner said Washington had already prepared most of the peace agreement, but its signing is being held up by Ukraine's unwillingness to make territorial concessions to Russia.

Quote: "President Putin's 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. And obviously, our job as the mediators [is] to figure out how can we come up with a creative solution that doesn't violate their desires and that helps them achieve their objective, and does in a way that we can get Russia to end the conflict in a way that hopefully allows both parties to move forward in a framework where this doesn't happen again." [N.B. Ukrainska Pravda does not recognise Putin as president – ed.]

Details: Kushner also said that the mediators' task is to find a "creative solution" that would allow the conflict to be frozen. At the same time, he believes the territorial issue should be resolved based on the situation on the battlefield.

In his address, the US president's envoy avoided mentioning Russia's perpetration of genocide in Ukraine, instead focusing on rhetoric that equated the losses suffered by both sides. He claimed that both Kyiv and Moscow are experiencing "a lot of pain" and have "a lot of desire" to end the war.

Quote: "At least for now, they [the Russians – ed.] are saying the right thing, which is they want to discuss a way to resolve this in a way… President Zelenskyy is very committed to this, from what we've seen. From what we heard, President Putin is very committed to this as well. We have to find the right formula that hopefully works for everyone to advance it forward."

Details: During his address, instead of addressing Russia's responsibility for its unprovoked aggression, Kushner proposed focusing on business interests and "better prosperity and economics" after the fighting ends.

Significantly, while he was discussing Putin's readiness for genuine peace talks, an air-raid warning was in effect in Kyiv amid another Russian attack.

When asked how often he plans to visit Kyiv to demonstrate support and help bring about at least a temporary halt to air strikes, Kushner said he prefers to work remotely.

Quote: "We're not really into performative diplomacy. We do what we need to do on the phone, we do what we need to do over Zoom… I'd love to come back when we have peace."

Background:

• On 6 September, the US president's special envoy Steve Witkoff said the task of the US delegation that visited Kyiv and Moscow was to "bring the sides closer together".
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that three rounds of talks had taken place on 6 September and that all of them had been "very substantive"; they addressed possible parameters for ending the war and support for Ukraine in the short term.
• Kushner said at the time that an end to the war in Ukraine before winter is not guaranteed, but that the US side is working to create the conditions to achieve this goal.

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