The Americans arrived on a train that the Ukrainians called the "peace express." Yet nothing about the process of ending the war with Russia has been fast or direct, and there is no sign that will change anytime soon. The U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went to Ukraine on Sunday fresh off a trip to Moscow bearing what President Trump said was a proposal to end nearly five years of war. But the Trump administration itself, consumed by its war with Iran, had allowed the peace process to enter such a deep freeze that the trip was just a preliminary step — talks about how to resume talks. And President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said it appeared that the war would continue at least into what analysts say could be a devastating winter for the country.

"It's a very, very hard problem, but we're going to try," Mr. Kushner said of negotiations to end the war. "And I think if we can achieve that, it'd be an incredible thing. That doesn't mean we will achieve it, but it's very important to try." Mr. Kushner said "new ideas" were presented to Mr. Zelensky in a series of discussions on Sunday. He gave no details and also declined to give a timeline for reaching any potential settlement. The Ukrainian leader offered little more detail about the talks with the Americans.

"All the possibilities" for resuming negotiations were discussed, he said at a news conference after the meetings, as were "several genuinely new ideas." When pressed on when further talks would be held, the responses from Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner and Mr. Zelensky seemed to follow a pattern: "Soon" or "hopefully soon." Ukrainian officials had been saying before the Americans arrived that they expected negotiations to resume in earnest later this month, after Russian parliamentary elections but before the U.S. midterms.

Those talks, if they happen, would be held alongside an escalation in the air war between Moscow and Kyiv, and a Russian push to accelerate its slow territorial gains in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The war, analysts say, is likely to get only uglier in the months to come, as Russia seeks a knockout wintertime blow against Kyiv and the two sides try to gain the upper hand in eventual settlement negotiations.