Vladimir Putin greets Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (L) and real estate developer Steve Witkoff (C) in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, September 5, 2026

The Week in TrumpLand — “Grandpa Has Left The Building” From Ukraine to Iran to Canada

Saturday’s Coverage: On Eve of Visit by Trump Envoys, Russia Strikes State Security in Kyiv

UPDATE 0949 GMT:

Internal audits establish that Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste, and mismanagement in 2024 alone.

Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier deals, or the arrest of chief executives for corruption.

Companies won contracts without demonstrating that they could supply weapons, or without licenses to deliver them. Auditors identified 18 companies that signed deals despite defaulting on previous agreements. Six of those companies failed to fulfill a single contract.

Tamerlan Vahabov, a former adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency, summarizes:

The army doesn’t get what it needs and the budget shrinks from non-deliveries and overpayment. As a result, we don’t have money to order more weapons. We don’t have the quantity of ammunition we need. And it is a recurring pattern.

UPDATE 0924 GMT:

At least eight civilians were murdered, including a child, and at least 69 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, four people were killed and eight injured.

Among those slain were an 11-year-old boy and a 19-year-old woman in the town of Chuhuiv.

In the Kherson region in the south, two people were killed and 20 injured, including two children.

In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, one civilian was murdered and 27 injured.

In the Mykolaiv region in the south, a driver was killed by a Russian drone attack on transport infrastructure.

Casualties were also recorded in the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Donetsk, and Khmenytskyi regions.

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

Ukrainian drones again struck the Ryazan Oil Refinery, one of Russia’s three largest.

The refinery produces more than 2 million tons of gasoline and more than 3 million tons of diesel fuel annually. It supplies fuel to the Moscow region.

The complex was also attacked in May and in July, forcing it to suspend operations.

Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said drone debris damaged “one of the enterprises” where a fire broke out.

UPDATE 0815 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 82 of 108 drones and all six Banderol cruise missiles launched by Russia overnight.

Strikes were recorded at 11 locations.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Trying to revive the Trump Administration’s support of his demands for Ukraine’s surrender, Vladimir Putin has hosted Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin.

Putin met the real estate developer and Trump’s son-in-law for three hours on Saturday. The two men are scheduled to travel to Kyiv, their first visit during Russia’s invasion, today.

Refusing talks for a ceasefire on current frontlines, the Russians are seeking renewed US backing for Ukraine’s surrender of territory, with the rest of the country left without significant security guarantees.

The White House said the Kremlin meeting “discussed substantive plans for next steps”. These will be announced in “coming weeks”, as the envoys “look forward to equally productive meetings…in Ukraine”.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the envoys “put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement” in “substantive, constructive, extremely frank, and trustworthy” talks. He did not give any further information.

Indicating Russia was maintaining its terms for Ukrainian capitulation, Ushakov said Putin told the US envoys of “the Russian army’s real successes in advancing in the combat zone and expressed confidence in achieving its goals” with the seizure of eastern Ukraine.

In the filmed introduction to the meeting, Putin greeted Witkoff and Kushner:

Dear colleagues, I warmly welcome you to Moscow. The situation is, of course, not simple.

But before we begin to address it, I would like to ask everyone to convey their best wishes and words of gratitude to US President Mr. Trump.

Witkoff responded, “When we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and memories and yours will be right at the top of it all.”