Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the war with Russia currently appears likely to continue into the winter, after talks with visiting US envoys in Kyiv.

The talks produced upbeat assessments from both sides but no announced breakthrough in efforts to end the war.

“We very much hope that we will be able to reach agreements with our American partners, and we are counting on the support of our European partners if the war continues in winter – and this is how it appears at the moment,” Zelenskyy said.

He also said Ukraine would hold talks with the US, France and Germany, without giving further details.

Zelenskyy again argued that the most difficult territorial issues could only be resolved in a meeting between leaders.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, had travelled to Kyiv a day after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin had announced a three-day pause in attacks on Kyiv for the duration of the US negotiators’ visit. Ukraine, in turn, refrained from attacking Moscow during the same period.

Zelenskyy joked that the presence of Witkoff and Kushner had ‘worked better than the Patriot air defence systems’.

It was Witkoff and Kushner’s first visit to the Ukrainian capital, a repeated target of Russian strikes since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. The pair have made several visits to Moscow.

While Witkoff and Zelenskyy both described Sunday’s talks positively, neither side announced a concrete breakthrough. 

Ukrainian attacks kill 2 in Russia

Meanwhile, attacks with drones killed at least two people and injured several others in Russia, regional authorities have said.

One person was killed and four others were injured in Russia’s Perm region after a drone attack damaged a residential building, regional Governor Dmitry Makhonin said.

He said local air defence units had shot down 27 Ukrainian drones over the region, which lies deep inside Russia.

In the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, one person was killed and another injured in a separate Ukrainian drone attack, according to local authorities.

Reuters said it could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

DW