The Daily BriefMorning Briefing · Saturday 5 September 2026 · 00:55 BST
Morning Briefing · Saturday 5 September 2026

US Envoys Arrive in Moscow Today With 'a Proposal to End the War'

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travel to Moscow today to meet Mr Putin, then on to Kyiv — and they are not travelling empty-handed. “They are bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” President Trump said, blaming the deadlock on a “personality problem”: the two leaders “truly hate each other… and it’s getting in the way.” Notably, no Russian attack on Kyiv was reported overnight — and no Ukrainian “mirror” strike either. The toll from Friday’s SBU headquarters strike rose to twelve injured.

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The overnight silence over Kyiv is the first genuine signal in days: after a fortnight of nightly bombardment and a drone in the security chief’s window, both sides holding fire on the eve of talks suggests each wants the weekend to produce something — or wants the blame for failure worn by the other. What the “proposal” contains is unknown, and the war’s arithmetic explains the scepticism: Russia gained barely ninety square kilometres in August at enormous cost, yet Mr Putin has conceded nothing on territory, and Kyiv’s intelligence expects another three-hundred-thousand-man conscription within weeks. Mr Trump reducing a continental war to a “personality problem” is either naivety or a negotiator’s framing that lets both sides climb down without losing. Watch Sunday’s Kyiv leg — whether it happens at all is the weekend’s first verdict.

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