U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first official visit to Ukraine, part of a renewed push for peace more than 4½ years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country.

The American delegation's trip follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, held as both sides have escalated their aerial attacks. Washington's effort to end the fighting has lost momentum, with the Trump administration focused for the past six months on the Iran war.

Russia has recently deployed fast-flying, jet-powered drones, and the recurring wail of air-raid sirens has become part of daily life in Kyiv. Along the 1,250-kilometer (775-mile) front line, troops have struggled to make progress.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that his government is ready for a "constructive" discussion with the U.S. emissaries.

"We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared," Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram.

His emphasis on security guarantees reflects a longstanding sticking point in peace efforts: Kyiv has consistently sought binding Western security commitments as a condition of any settlement, while Moscow has resisted arrangements it views as drawing Ukraine closer to the West.

The envoys arrived by train and were welcomed at the station in Ukraine's capital by high-ranking Ukrainian officials, before being met by Zelenskyy at a ceremony in St. Sophia Square. Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy's chief of staff, said representatives of Ukraine's European partners from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were also in Kyiv. The presence of European officials underscores that France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have been among Ukraine's leading military and financial backers since the invasion began, and that any durable settlement will require their engagement.

Saturday's meeting in Moscow lasted more than three hours behind closed doors and concluded without any major developments being announced. Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described the talks as constructive, frank, and useful, but declined to discuss specific outcomes. While Moscow offered its "comprehensive assessment" of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, Ushakov said the talks were not solely focused on the war.

"Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail," he said. The reference to joint economic projects comes as Russia remains under sweeping Western sanctions imposed since the full-scale invasion, which have restricted its energy exports and cut off much of its access to Western financial markets.

The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner — U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law — was in January, when they also held talks with Putin at the Kremlin.

Putin and Zelenskyy had agreed to pause strikes on each other's capitals while the talks take place. Even so, the two sides traded fire overnight into Sunday, officials said.

Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed one person and wounded at least 10 others overnight into Sunday, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service. In Zaporizhzhia, drone strikes killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three people, while in the Khmelnytskyi region a drone damaged an apartment building, wounding seven people.

Ukraine's air force said Sunday that it intercepted 82 of the 108 drones launched by Russia overnight, along with six missiles.

In Russia, a man was killed and a woman was seriously wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, local authorities in the Belgorod border region said. The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that its air defenses overnight shot down 258 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and the waters of the Black and Azov Seas.

In Kyiv on Sunday, dozens gathered for the nationwide 9 a.m. moment of silence honoring Ukraine's fallen soldiers — a daily ritual held in cities across the country. Among those attending was Nataliia Lipei, 67, whose son Viktor was killed in December 2022. Despite a health condition, she has traveled from city to city to take part, and she said she hopes the talks in Moscow and Kyiv will finally bring an end to the war.

"I hope these steps and these meetings will definitely produce results, because there has been so much bloodshed and so many deaths here that we have to stop all of this," Lipei told The Associated Press.

Not everyone shared her optimism. Oleksandr Pastukhov, a 27-year-old video editor who joined the commemoration, was skeptical that the envoys' visit would change anything.

"We've already seen delegations like this come here before," he said. "We've seen this so-called ceasefire for three days, which ended after just a couple of hours, and now we're supposed to naively think that two people will come and change something."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.