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U.S. Envoys Hold "Substantive" Talks With Zelenskyy In Kyiv; Halt On Kyiv And Moscow Attacks Set To End As U.S. Talks Wrap; U.S. Pushing To Resume Trilateral Talks With Moscow And Kyiv. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2026 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[04:00:41]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Sandoval live in New York. And ahead here on CNN Newsroom, U.S. Envoys Witkoff and Kushner feeling encouraged following peace talks in Moscow and Kyiv, but no sign yet of any breakthrough to end the war.

Plus, an Amazon cargo plane barrels off the Runway in Miami resulting in a fatal crash. The latest on the investigation.

And Donald Trump's latest executive order seeks to remove the endangered status from gray wolves, allowing ranchers to kill them. I'll ask a conservationist if the species has recovered enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: All right, thank you so much for sharing your week with me. We do want to begin this hour with the high-stakes meetings in Kyiv amid a renewed effort to end the war in Ukraine. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner said that they had substantive discussions with President Zelenskyy and Kyiv officials on Sunday. And all this comes after the U.S. delegation also met with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday.

Now, while we are not hearing any word of any major breakthroughs, Witkoff appeared optimistic following the talks with both sides. But the end of peace talks at least this phase signals the end of a temporary truce that was struck between Kyiv and Moscow. A 72 hour pause in strikes had protected only the two capital cities for the duration of the U.S. diplomatic visit. Elsewhere, officials say that Russian airstrikes have killed at least 10 Ukrainians and injured 65 others in just 24 hours.

Joining us live to discuss now is CNN's Clare Sebastian. So, Clare, what can we expect next after this series of meetings?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think Polo, clearly this was a moment where both sides got the optics they were looking for. Russia is always keen, of course, to host the U.S. envoys in Moscow. And for Ukraine, critically important given that this was their first visit to be able to show them exactly what they're expecting, experiencing.

But beyond that, I think what happened here was this really threw into sharp focus just how much time has been lost. Obviously, these peace talks have been frozen for over six months now, ever since the start of the Iran war.

And it ended with a push from the U.S. side to get back to the trilateral format of talks, U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, that they had done already three times by the middle of February. So, take a listen to Steve Witkoff speaking after his eighth trip to Moscow and his first to Kyiv.

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STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: We came to see President Putin first. We needed to hear where he stood. We had good, concrete conversation with him, which we advised President Zelenskyy and his team about both sides have to come to a resolution here. And my job with and Jared's job together is to bring the parties together, to narrow the issues between them, to create good communication channels.

And hopefully we began that process constructively in the last 48 hours, and we're confident that there'll be a good resolution here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: I mean, we began that process, I think, again, telling that, look, we're over one and a half years into the Trump administration that had promised to end this war in 24 hours, and they're now sort of starting again to some extent. There were, after the meetings in Moscow on Saturday, a lot of statements that I think would have been red flags for the Ukrainians, of course, Putin telling the U.S. envoys that it had been very convenient to work with them. A clear sign that he feels no pressure from these envoys to compromise.

In the readout that we got from his top aide, Yuri Ushakov, there was talk of Russian battlefield successes. We know that they tend to talk these up specifically to present to the U.S. side the narrative that Russian victory is inevitable. They talked about eliminating the root causes of the conflict, which is shorthand for Russia's maximalist goals in Ukraine, Ukraine withdrawing from the Donbass and other parts of those goals. And they talked about business opportunities with the United States. So, again, a signal that they are offering carrots rather than sticks here. So next steps potentially talks again with the European side, who were present in Kyiv. And of course, the U.S. is now pushing for more trilateral talks involving Russia and Ukraine.

[04:05:10]

So hopefully for the Ukrainians at least, momentum here, but no progress as of yet, Polo.

SANDOVAL: They certainly have been waiting for that momentum for a while now. Clare Sebastian reporting from London. Thank you so much for that.

Let's keep the conversation going now and head over to Nigel Gould- Davies. He's a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He's joining me from Poland.

Nigel, good morning to you. Thanks for joining us.

NIGEL GOULD-DAVIES, SR. FELLOW FOR RUSSIA AND EURASIA, INTL. INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Good morning.

SANDOVAL: Wonder if I can get your general assessment of what was a very busy weekend of meetings both in Kyiv and Moscow. Do you see these meetings bringing us any closer to an end in hostilities or merely photo ops?

GOULD-DAVIES: I'm afraid in most respects it feels like Groundhog Day. As your correspondent was just saying this, all the mood music and signs coming out of Moscow were that the same lines, the same language is being used exactly as before. And in fact, I would say in some respects, if you look at the last few weeks leading up to this, in some respects, Putin's and Russia's position has hardened and there is a sense of confidence, misplaced or not, that Russia can ultimately dictate terms and has the upper hand.

The new and significant thing, of course, is the visit of these envoys to Kyiv. That's certainly something that is unwelcome to Russia and that Russia has tried to stop in various ways, it's very good that for the first time, Mr. Jared, Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff are experiencing life in Kyiv at firsthand, a city under siege and meeting with President Zelenskyy and others that may possibly change their psychology and perceptions in the way that we've seen that do with other visitors to Kyiv.

But if you look at the underlying structure of the situation which defines the possibilities for negotiations and ultimately outcome, there is no change on Moscow's side. And that is the thing that is preventing any progress in this process.

SANDOVAL: Yes. The so called root causes, as Clare just laid out right now, as Russia tends to refer to that as -- and then to that other point, Nigel, about, you know, the why now, why we're seeing the Trump administration send Witkoff and Kushner to Ukraine for the first time.

You mentioned that message that the Ukrainians could be getting. But I'm just curious perhaps what could be behind that decision for the White House to finally send some of their representatives to meet with Zelenskyy and even officials from the capital city of Kyiv.

GOULD-DAVIES: That's as much a matter of White House criminology as Russian criminology. And there'll be people better placed to understand the details of that. I mean, two thoughts there. The first is that President Trump is clearly ahead of the midterms under a degree of pressure, particularly in the wake of the passing of Lindsey Graham. We've seen renewed determination on the part of Congress to push through sanctions bills which possibly with veto proof majorities. You've seen that happen before. We saw that in the first Trump administration. So maybe it's an attempt to try to draw the sting of that.

Just a second point. Just pull the camera back a bit and look at the series of in some ways quite confused and contradictory strands of American engagement with Russia over the past few weeks. You'll recall just the other week, the visit of the CIA head John Radcliffe to Moscow with, by all accounts, very, very different messages, warnings in effect, to Moscow not to escalate its campaign of so-called hybrid or subthreshold aggression against Moscow, against Europe. Sorry.

And on the other hand, reports that Cash Patel will make a visit to Moscow in October for reasons yet to be fully understood. So maybe there's a sense of flux or confusion or different priorities among some of the principals around Donald Trump pulling in different directions here.

SANDOVAL: I'm also curious about what Ukraine stands to potentially gain here. And more than anything, too, Nigel, just how much does Ukraine's president actually realistically expect out of the United States? Because you have the U.S. still engaged in a whole other conflict that's still raging. The efforts for peace, as we've learned, have essentially stalled, and the U.S. has yet to deliver on its promise to provide additional military support. Those crucial air defense systems as well.

[04:10:15]

GOULD-DAVIES: Yes. I mean, I just draw attention to, I think, an underappreciated sort of ambiguity or complexity in the full range of Americans engagement with Ukraine under Donald Trump's second presidency. Now, the headline figure, of course, is that the White House, with all of these visits to Moscow and just this first one to Kyiv, which admittedly does set a helpful precedent, and we would hope and expect future such visits to Kyiv. It's not a one off.

But the overall mood music of that is the tendency of this White House to see things more from a Russian than an American point of view and to be courting President Putin much more than President Zelenskyy.

On the other hand, if you look at some of the details of some of the things that this White House has actually done, objectively speaking, they've been surprisingly helpful to Ukraine. So, credible reports of intelligence support for Ukraine to assist it in the targeting of drone attacks against some of the Russian facilities in Russia, including oil refineries, the cutting off of Russia's access to Starlink, well, that wasn't technically a White House action, but it was one decided by Elon Musk, who is still in some sense, close to the White House.

Last year, President Trump imposed major sanctions on two of the biggest Russian oil companies. So, there have been these moments in American policy where they've done things that are very unwelcome to Russia and welcome to Ukraine.

So maybe there's a sense in the part of Kyiv that, yes, they're not likely to transform America's diplomatic approach, but they can. They can say things, and they can make an effective and credible case for America to do smaller things that remain significant and helpful, even if America is still not doing the big things, particularly on providing defense, as you say, that the Kyiv now urgently needs.

SANDOVAL: Oh, you're always welcome back here. Nigel Gould-Davies, with that great perspective as always. Thank you for your time.

GOULD-DAVIES: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Now to Iran, which plans to announce a new restricted zone just outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days. And that's according to the country's top national security official and advisor to the supreme leader. The zone will also include areas in the Gulf, and any ship entering that zone would be added to a sanctions list. And all of this as Tehran warns of retaliation in the wake of recent hostilities in the area.

Let's get more now from CNN's Paula Hancock, who joins me live from Abu Dhabi. Paula, good morning to you. So, what else are you hearing about Tehran's position in all this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been hearing from the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, and they have called what we saw over the weekend with the U.S. targeting of Iranian ships illegal and aggressive, calling it an overt threat to international peace. Now, what we saw was from U.S. Central Command saying that the U.S. military did engage three crude oil carriers, two inside the Persian Gulf, one outside of the Gulf area. And they said the reason that they did this is because U.S. Navy vessels, two of them, had come under attack from Iran. So, this was in retaliation.

I'll read you part of the statement from the CENTCOM commander, Admiral Brad Cooper. He said, quote, "Let the message to the IRGC be clear. If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost, taking out three of yours. We will not hesitate to defend American forces and, if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet."

So what we've heard from CENTCOM is that well over 90 commercial vessels have been redirected at this point as part of their naval blockade as well. What we're hearing from Iran and we're hearing from the head of the Supreme National Security Council, is that they are going to increase the restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz. They have claimed that it is closed and that there are no vessels getting through. That is not what we're seeing from the maritime tracking data, but they are saying that they will have a blockade that will start from the U.S. blockade through the Strait of Hormuz, further west into the Persian Gulf itself, and that any ship that was coming through without its permission would be put on a sanctions list.

[04:15:02] Now Iran's also claiming that they have tested a new anti-destroyer missile. They said that this was a warning shot to those two U.S. Navy vessels over the weekend, which is what sparked this CENTCOM response that has been rejected, though from Central Command.

So, what we're seeing is the battle still very much in play in this cross critical waterway, with some but not many vessels managing to get through, and both the U.S. and Iran at this point claiming that they are in control of what is getting through. Polo.

SANDOVAL: Paula Hancock, as always, thank you so much for your reporting live from Abu Dhabi.

Well, at least five people are dead and five others injured after an Amazon cargo plane overran a Runway during an attempted landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday. We want to show you some of the footage of the incident, but first, a warning that it is difficult to watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God. Oh. Oh my. You see that?

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SANDOVAL: Boeing 767 that attempted to land after flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico. But video shows the aircraft left the end of the runway and then crossed two roads before coming to a stop. The plane, operated by 21 Air, struck multiple vehicles on the ground and then caught fire, sending smoke billowing into the air. An official says that some victims were trapped in their vehicles and had to be freed.

CNN has reviewed air traffic control audio and found that the pilots did not declare an emergency before that landing. And delays continue for the flights heading into Miami International Airport due to that disabled aircraft. Officials say investigators are working to determine why the plane could not come to a stop on the runway.

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CHIEF RAY JADALA, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: The airplane did strike a couple of vehicles that required a couple of victims that were actually trapped in the vehicles. So, a complex extrication with our technical rescue teams throughout started to occur. In addition to that, we had a very complex fire engine compartments that were on fire, including a search and rescue of the pilot and co-pilot that were trapped in this aircraft. This incident will continue for the next several days, as we play now, a supporting role with the sheriff's office as they determine the cause of the deaths.

Total 10 that were involved: five fatalities, three that are in critical condition that were transported to the trauma center, and another two that were transported to a local hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo is outlining several

key areas that investigators will be assessing as they try to find any answers in the coming days.

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MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, the investigators are going to be looking at least four different areas. They're going to be looking at the piling of the aircraft. And it's, it's very helpful that they have that video showing how the plane was coming in. They're going to be looking at the airfield.

This airfield did what they call arrestor beds, in other words, safety overrun areas at the end of the runway that stop the plane from moving forward. They're going to be looking at the weather. A storm had moved through a pretty big one. And there were some warnings that there could be crosswinds or tailwinds, including up to about 26 knots, 30 miles an hour.

Granted, that was gusts, but if it -- if it was a tailwind rather than a crosswind, wind would push the plane further down the runway. And finally, they look at the plane itself. It was 32 years old.

It had been in foreign ownership, including Russian ownership in its past. And they will want to know if all the equipment was working on it. In that video, you don't see and it's difficult to see because it's a shot far away of the landing, but you don't see the thrust reversers, the spoilers, and you see a landing where they land on one wheel in the back and then the front wheel, but you're supposed to land on the two back wheels and let the speed, the airspeed and the airflow over the wings dissipate. And then the nose drops. So, it does not look like a controlled landing.

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SANDOVAL: And we'll keep tracking that investigation. And still on the way here on CNN Newsroom, a stunning victory for the far right in German state elections over the weekend. What it means for German and European politics. We'll explain.

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[04:23:38]

SANDOVAL: Well, it's the first time since World War II that a far- right party in Germany has achieved this much dominance in a state election. Preliminary results are showing that the Alternative for Germany, or AfD party, has gained a significant victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Meanwhile, early vote counting shows AfD won 44 percent of the vote in that state. And that means that they'd hold 39 of the 83 seats in the state, which is just short of the 42 needed for an absolute majority.

AfD's surge in this election reflects some deep dissatisfaction with Germany's current ruling coalition that's run by. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's protests against the AfD party. They sprang up in several German cities, including in Frankfurt and in Berlin.

Slogans on some protesters' signs recalled Germany's darkest days, such as "Never Again 33." That's a reference to the year that the Nazi party came into power.

I want to give you now a live look from Berlin as leaders from the far-right AfD party comment on these stunning election results in that state and also what could potentially come next for them. Let's go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, which is actually right outside that venue.

Fred, I'm wondering if you could just walk us again through the significance of this and also the monumental task of coalition building that's ahead for the AFD party.

[04:25:07]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Polo. First of all, this is highly significant for Germany. I would say also for, for Europe as well. One of the things that we've been seeing over the past couple of hours is really there's been shock waves that have been sent through political Berlin because of this. A lot of the large parties are really asking themselves how things could come so far for them.

Because one of the things, of course, that we saw in that very small state election in Saxony-Anhalt is the AfD being very strong, but also the ruling parties, the one that have the power here in Berlin, with a very weak showing, especially the Christian Democratic Union of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

But you're absolutely right to point out that coalition building, of course, is something that is quite difficult here in Germany on a federal level, but on a state level as well. And it's unclear whether or not, despite this landslide victory that the AfD has had, whether or not they are actually going to be able to take over the governorship. They're not going to be able to govern alone. They need a coalition partner.

However, pretty much all of the other parties have said they are not going to work together with the AfD. So, one of the things that certainly is probably going to get mapped out in that press conference that you see going on behind me with the party brass, including the party chairwoman Alice Weidel and the candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, is how they're going to move forward, whether or not there's going to have to be a snap election in several weeks, whether or not they are going to go into a coalition, how things are going to play out as far as that is concerned.

This is a very small state that we're talking about. It has about 2.1 million people that live there. Far less actually than in the capital here in Berlin.

Nevertheless, the AfD chairwoman, Alice Weidel, told me in an interview after the results came out that she believes that this is a stepping stone for the right wing AfD party to eventually take over power in Germany. She literally told me she believes that Friedrich Merz's days as German Chancellor are numbered. She believes he's going to be out of office by about Christmas.

And she believes they have a good chance in the future to take over power here in this country. And this was a signal, she believes, this past weekend for something like that to happen.

So you can see a regional election in a small state, nevertheless, massive reverberations here around political Berlin. And you can also see a lot of reactions coming in already from all of Europe.

But also around the world. You had President Donald Trump retweeting the election results. You had Elon Musk congratulating the Alternative for Germany, and also a couple of MAGA members of Congress as well going on. And also congratulating this party as well, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that live update. We'll let you get back to your reporting there. Do come back to us if there's anything significant.

There's so much more on the way here on CNN Newsroom, including a question of, could Cuba have prevented its current energy crisis? Just ahead, a look at the once promising future of the island nation's nuclear ambitions. Stay with us. You're watching CNN Newsroom.

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