U.S. officials are now in Kyiv for the Trump administration's renewed push to end the Russia-Ukraine war. CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan has the details.

Kyiv

U.S. officials, led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, have traveled to Kyiv as part of the Trump administration's effort to restart peace negotiations and assess military developments in Ukraine. The visit follows recent deadly aerial attacks and marks a significant shift, as President Trump had previously sought to reduce direct U.S. presence in the region.

Discussions in Kyiv are expected to address the possibility of a ceasefire, military technology cooperation, and battlefield assessments. Parallel diplomatic efforts have included meetings between U.S. and Russian envoys, though details remain unconfirmed and European allies have not been fully briefed. The U.S. views Ukraine as a critical testing ground for modern warfare technologies, particularly drones and artificial intelligence.

U.S. officials in Ukraine to push for renewed peace talks

U.S. officials are now in key for the Trump administration's renewed push to try to end Russia's war against Ukraine. Amid this push, Russia's war continues. Overnight aerial attacks killed at least 25 people, injured dozens more. Margaret Brennan, chief foreign affairs correspondent and moderator of Face the Nation, joins me now to discuss. What do we know, Margaret? Well, this is a highly unusual trip, and it's a big decision for President Trump to send any of his officials to Ukraine because he's largely tried to disengage in terms of a presence in Kyiv. But he has sent in the head of the army, the top general, as well, of the army and military officials. And this is significant. Ukrainian officials tell me tomorrow they expect President Zelensky to meet with Dan Driscoll, who is the army secretary. And the mission includes, yes, feeling out the potential for getting back to those ceasefire talks that Ukraine and the U.S. had agreed to the parameters of, but without Russian buy-in. But it's also to talk about military technology development and to understand what's happening on the battlefield. And as our Ellie Watson has reported, it was the White House who chose this Pentagon official to, I guess, find a way for the military minds to be meeting, rather than that of the diplomats. You had the army secretary, Driscoll, on Face the Nation. He said this about Ukraine and what can be learned from it. Please listen. There's not a single person I know that doesn't think that is an incredible treasure trove of information for future warfare. I think a lot of the questions are, how do we actually execute on the president's agenda of peace in that part of the world? So Margaret, is there something that constitutes new suggestions to the Ukrainians about what the United States thinks the contours of a peace resolution might be? Well, we know that Trump and Zelensky agreed to freeze the line of conflict along the existing battle lines, not necessarily for Ukraine to cede that territory permanently back to Russia, which is what Russia claims. It was Russian, and Ukraine knows— Disputes that. Right. It's been Ukrainian territory for some time. So we know that broadly, and the idea of security guarantees were broadly agreed to, but nothing beyond that point. Remember, President Trump put more sanctions on Russia, oil and gas, just last month, because Russia was not coming to the table with those terms. In terms of what Driscoll is arriving with, it's a little bit more of a battlefield assessment. We know, at the same time, there's this parallel effort. Days after President Trump put those sanctions on Russian oil and gas, he still allowed for a top Russian adviser to Vladimir Putin, this gentleman, Kirill Dmitriev, who's a businessman, to meet in Miami with his envoy, Steve Whitkoff. We knew it was happening at the time. We knew they were talking broadly about outlines of a plan. Axios has reported it's now down to 28 points. We have not confirmed that. None of the European officials seem to have been briefed on it, in terms of specifics. So, the allies aren't looking at it as necessarily a serious offer. They are looking at Secretary Driscoll being in Kiev as a very important thing to watch, why he was chosen as the person to represent the United States and what he comes back with. Now, in terms of what the return to the United States is and what Secretary Driscoll was speaking about there, there is an argument among Ukraine hawks within Republican circles that Ukraine is a testing ground for the future of modern warfare and that the United States is learning quite a lot when it comes to artificial intelligence, drone, anti-drone technology, and to view this not as a loss for the United States to invest in the conflict and its military space, but as a win longer term. So, Driscoll, who is charged with modernizing the drone force, is very much focused on that portion of it. Russia's been buying Iranian drones. And by the way, in recent weeks, we've seen a number of incursions into European airspace of drones believed to be Russian. Ukraine, as a laboratory, it very well may be, but it's a bloody laboratory, for sure. Margaret Brennan, thank you so much for that.

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