By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-08 16:51:41 | Updated at 2026-09-08 17:37:44
54 minutes ago
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed during a phone call to continue working toward a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, the prime minister’s office said on Monday, with the war now well into its fifth year.
“The Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s support for Ukraine and for recent US-led peace negotiations,” his office said.
Monday’s call follows U.S. peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveling to Russia and Ukraine over the weekend to speak with both of the countries’ leaders. Moscow and Kyiv agreed to pause strikes on each other’s capital cities for three days to ensure the envoys’ safety.
The pair met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sept. 5 for more than three hours, during which Witkoff and Kushner “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
On Sept. 6, they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who later described the negotiations as substantive.
“We hope that we will be able to reach arrangements with our American partners in this domain, and we hope for the support of European partners,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
He added that if the war continues into winter, Ukraine will depend heavily on international allies to supply aid in the form of air defenses and energy.
After the meetings, Witkoff signaled there was fresh momentum behind the possibility of resuming talks.
“Substantive progress was made, including movement on scheduling additional trilateral talks,” Witkoff said in a Sept. 7 post on X, referring to both meetings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Jared Kushner (L), U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, as U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (C) stands nearby during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Sept. 5, 2026. Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Pool via Reuters
Although no agreements were announced during the weekend visits, the U.S. envoy said on Monday that his and Kushner’s job is to bring the parties together.
“To narrow the issues between them, to create good communication channels, and, hopefully, we began that process constructively in the last 48 hours, and we’re confident that there'll be a good resolution here,” Witkoff wrote in a post on X.
Ratcliffe’s Visit to Moscow
Witkoff’s and Kushner’s visit followed CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow for meetings on Aug. 25.
Confirming Ratcliffe’s visit on Aug. 26, Trump had said the United States was working hard to end the war, adding that Moscow and Kyiv wanted to see an end to hostilities as well.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (C) walks with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys Jared Kushner (R) and Steve Witkoff (L) at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 6, 2026. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
The U.S. president said ahead of Kushner’s and Witkoff’s trip on Friday that the two envoys would bring a proposal to end the war.
“I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators,” Trump told reporters during a Sept. 4 press conference in the Oval Office. “They’ve done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it.”
Stalled Negotiations
The meetings came after months of stalled negotiations. The two U.S. envoys last met with Putin in January to discuss the war.
Moscow has previously said that it wants to take permanent ownership of four Ukrainian regions, or oblasts, in southern and eastern Ukraine: Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. Luhansk and Donetsk are together known as the Donbas. Russia already annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelenskyy has previously said that it will not cede territory.
“Ukraine absolutely wants peace, but it is not ready to simply surrender,” he said on Aug. 24.
Putin said on Sept. 3 that there was a chance of reaching a settlement with Ukraine.
During a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Russian leader acknowledged that other countries were ready to support a peace deal, including the United States, but that “Russia and Ukraine must in the first place reach an agreement amongst themselves.”
“Are there prospects [of a settlement]? In my view, yes, there are,” Putin said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
