Jerusalem Post says Russia hopes talks 'resume soon'; Ukrinform says allies expect the war into 2027

Two accounts of one peace track. The Jerusalem Post says Moscow hopes US-mediated talks with Ukraine will resume soon. Ukrinform, relaying Bloomberg, says European and US officials expect the war to run into 2027 because the initiative "has failed to make significant progress".

Nobody is named. No official is quoted by name in any of the five. Two carry another outlet's reporting. Two reach us as a headline with no text behind it.

What each side is called. Ukrinform writes "Russia's war against Ukraine". Obozrevatel calls the same army "occupiers" and calls the Kremlin statement cynical in its own headline. Life.ru turns the funding request into a "demand" and asks where the money went.

Not settled. Whether the track is alive. "Hopes talks resume soon" and "some contacts exist" trace to the same Kremlin comments and are not the same strength. The 2027 forecast rests on one report relaying one outlet. The $27bn appears once. No report we hold puts a casualty or strike figure beside the talks it describes.

What this is about. An American attempt to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and whether that attempt is still running or has stalled.

How it got here. Ukraine became an independent state in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. In 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and backed armed separatists in Ukraine's east. On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine in full; the fighting has not stopped since. Moscow's stated reasons for the invasion are rejected by Kyiv and by Ukraine's Western backers, and the argument over them is part of what any settlement has to resolve.

Ukraine has fought the war on foreign money and foreign weapons. The United States and European governments have supplied both, and who pays for what is itself disputed — we reported on 8 September that Ukrainian and Russian outlets gave different accounts of who was buying Ukraine's Patriot air-defence missiles from whom.

Donald Trump returned to the US presidency in January 2025 and has pushed for a negotiated end. His envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Moscow and then, on 6 September, to Kyiv — their first visit to Ukraine, Obozrevatel reports — meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and security advisers from France, Britain and Germany. Witkoff said afterwards that a further round might take a three-way form: Ukraine, Russia and the United States at one table.

Who is in it. Russia, whose president Vladimir Putin decides whether Moscow negotiates and whose aides speak for him. Ukraine, fighting on its own territory. The United States, mediating. European governments, who arm and fund Ukraine and want a say in any terms.

What is at stake. If the three-way format convenes, there is a route to a ceasefire. If it does not, the fighting continues and Europe keeps paying for it — Life.ru, citing The New York Times, reports Kyiv has asked for $27bn more to cover its military budget.

Where it stands. No date has been set and no format agreed.