U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Russia then Ukraine over the weekend, Russian state news agency TASS has reported, citing an unnamed source. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also said American envoys will visit the capitals of both countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin is not seeking to attack NATO territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are heading to Russia and Ukraine to present a proposal aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump made the comments to reporters on Friday, as Washington steps up diplomatic efforts to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Kyiv on Sunday after holding talks in Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine would refrain from strikes on Russia during the envoys’ visit to Moscow and called on Russia to take the same step while they are in Ukraine.
He said Kyiv expects “constructive” talks aimed at finding options to bring the war to an end.
Ukraine does not expect conditions for a ceasefire with Russia to emerge before spring 2027, Presidential Office chief Kyrylo Budanov said.
“Negotiations will sooner or later come to something. You cannot fight your whole life,” Budanov told The New York Times.
His comments come as Kyiv prepares for a possible visit by U.S. envoys, who are also expected to hold talks in Moscow.
Russia said on Friday it had lodged a strong protest with the International Civil Aviation Organization over warnings by Ukraine that the presence of Ukrainian drones had made Russian skies too dangerous for airlines to use.
These “have no legal force, distort the real situation, and mislead users of Russian airspace,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
A Russian attack on the Kyiv headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service is a “major escalation,” Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said in a statement on X.
“Moscow launched this strike during a renewed push for peace — laying bare its true rejection of diplomacy," Sybiha said.
He added that UNESCO World Heritage Site, St. Sophia Cathedral, was also placed at risk by the strike.
A Russian attack on a thermal power plant in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson has resulted in the loss of all of its generating capacity, state oil and gas company Naftogaz said.
“The Russians struck a purely civilian facility that provides heat to a significant portion of Kherson's residential buildings,” the company's CEO Sergiy Fedorenko said in a statement.
The plant has been the target of repeated Russian attacks and was also struck on Wednesday.
Discussions on U.S. negotiators visiting Ukraine are ongoing, and the teams have spoken about Sunday (6 September) as a possible date, a source familiar with the matter said.
Russian state news agency TASS reported earlier that U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would visit Russia and Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday.
The European Commission on Monday approved a further $7.12 billion (€6.1 billion) in financial aid for Ukraine to procure new defence systems, such as air defence, missiles, ammunition and radars.
The EU said this latest aid package came on top of billions of previously approved procurement plans, of which half had already been disbursed.
“As Russia intensifies its attacks, we are stepping up to help Ukraine protect its people and defend its skies. Europe stands with Ukraine and we will deliver what it needs, when it needs it,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
An attempt has been made to short-circuit an electricity grid transformer south of Duesseldorf in western Germany, newspaper Bild reported on Friday, citing German police.
Police received a letter claiming responsibility for the incident in the town of Dormagen, as well as vandalism at a substation in nearby Bergheim that took 4,200 megawatts in generating capacity offline on Tuesday.
The incident comes after Germany blamed a drone attack in August at Leipzig/Halle airport on Moscow. Russia has dismissed the allegations as baseless.
The possibility of a Ukraine peace settlement remains, but there lacks a concrete basis for one right now, Vladimir Putin's Spokesperson has said.
Dmitry Peskov also declined to confirm if U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were due to visit Moscow in the coming days.
The Kremlin Spokesman said any contacts would be announced when they take place.
Flights between Dar es Salaam and Moscow will recommence on Monday, Air Tanzania has said. The announcement comes just hours after the airline said flights to the Russian capital were temporarily suspended due to safety concerns.
“The resumption follows the completion of a routine risk assessment of the operating environment along the route...” the firm said in a statement published on Instagram.
Earlier this week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's airspace was becoming “completely unsafe” due to the presence of drones.
U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and then head to Kyiv over the 5 and 6 September, Russian state news agency TASS has reported, citing a source.
“They expect to arrive in Moscow and then Kyiv on September 5-6,” the anonymous source was quoted as saying.
Air Tanzania has suspended flights between Dar es Salaam and Moscow with immediate effect. The company said the suspension was “temporary," but didn't say when flights would resume in a statement posted on Instagram.
“The decision follows a routine risk assessment of the operating environment along the route... Safety considerations always take precedence over commercial ones,” the firm said.
Earlier this week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's airspace was becoming “completely unsafe" due to the presence of drones. Airports across the country, including in Moscow, have had to suspend flights overnight in the past week due to safety concerns.
Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Odesa region overnight, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said, warning of possible network restrictions.
Odesa governor Oleh Kiper earlier said that one person had been killed and at least five injured in the strikes.
Poland announced restrictions on low-altitude flights along its eastern region to strengthen the country’s air defence capabilities on Thursday.
The Polish Armed Forces’ Operational Command announced the introduction of a “temporary restricted zone” in the eastern region of the country, covering airspace from ground level to around 3 kilometres.
The restriction will be in effect from 10 September to 9 December and will not affect passenger aircraft operating at higher altitudes.
Russia struck two ships in Black Sea ports carrying weapons, Moscow's Defence Ministry has said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Cargo ships in the Ukrainian ports of Yuzhnyi and Chornomorsk, both in the Odesa region, were hit, according to the Ministry.
Russia said it has also struck a logistics centre in the village of Gatnoye in the Kyiv region.
Two police officers were killed in a Russian drone strike on Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the area's governor Oleksandr Ganzha said in a statement on Telegram.
He added that a third officer was injured in the attack and is in hospital in a serious condition. Businesses were also damaged in strikes.
A Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port city of Sochi, authorities in the Krasnodar region, where the city is located, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy says he is preparing for a visit from U.S. envoys to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy did not specify a date for the meeting, but said the envoys would be visiting both Moscow and Kyiv.
Putin had earlier hinted at a 'chance of peace' while speaking at an annual economic forum on Thursday.
“Ultimately, however, the problem must be resolved by the countries involved in the conflict – Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
“We are grateful to everyone attempting to contribute to a settlement. Is there a chance? In my view, yes, there is.” he added.
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Follow our live blog for the latest developments on the war in Ukraine.
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As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday, as Washington pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine and Kyiv and Moscow continue to strike energy infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his team held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation in New York that he described as “very good” and “productive”, with another round of talks scheduled soon.
The 81st UN General Assembly continues in New York on Wednesday, with another day of high-level speeches and diplomatic meetings. The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, global security and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplomatic meetings. Restoring trust, managing global transformation, peace and security, and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
Australia says an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorised access to a government Medicare statistics portal in June, in what officials say could be an unprecedented case of an AI system breaching a government network.
Pakistan says it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday, targeting sites it said were used to store and launch drones, as tensions between the two neighbouring countries continued to escalate.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 24 September 2026, with five key developments from the second day of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
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