Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered Russian forces to suspend strikes on Kyiv for three days as U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at reviving efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The American negotiators are expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday for further discussions.
Ukraine had earlier proposed a temporary ceasefire ahead of the diplomatic meetings, which come as Washington attempts to restart negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv after peace efforts had stalled.
“Indeed, such information was received from the Ukrainian side. Russian President and Commander-in-Chief Putin gave orders to hold off on attacks on Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Saturday.
The Kremlin said the decision was directly connected to the upcoming American diplomatic activity in the Ukrainian capital.
“This is due to the preparation and conduct of American contacts in Kyiv,” Peskov said.
Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday after traveling aboard a U.S. government aircraft that stopped in Helsinki before entering Russian airspace. Russian special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev met the delegation at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport.
The two American envoys subsequently met with Putin at the Kremlin as part of the Trump administration’s continuing effort to broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Putin said at the opening of the meeting that Moscow was comfortable working with Witkoff and Kushner and stressed the importance of trust in mediators involved in the negotiations.
President Trump said Friday that the latest round of shuttle diplomacy could help establish conditions for resolving the conflict and that the United States has developed a vision for what eventual peace agreements between Russia and Ukraine could look like.
Following their Moscow meetings, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials. The visits place the two American emissaries in the middle of another attempt to narrow the substantial differences that remain between the Russian and Ukrainian positions.
The temporary halt comes after weeks in which Russian drone attacks against Ukrainian cities have intensified. At the same time, Ukraine has expanded its campaign against Russian oil infrastructure, with the number of strikes reaching a monthly record in August since the war began in 2022.
The ceasefire order followed a large-scale Russian overnight assault across Ukraine in which at least five people were killed and six others wounded, according to Ukrainian reports.
Zelensky said the latest strikes included attacks against airports in Kyiv and Boryspil, and he suggested that Moscow had deliberately targeted the facilities because of preparations for the arrival of the American delegation.
“They were deliberate, for the first time in a long while,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Clearly, Russia’s strikes on the airports are a reaction to discussions and preparations concerning the possibility of the American side using an aircraft to arrive in Ukraine.”
Despite the three-day pause in attacks on Kyiv, the Kremlin has cautioned that the broader diplomatic process remains far from a settlement. Peskov said Friday that there were still no concrete conditions in place for achieving peace, although contacts and American mediation efforts were continuing.
Putin’s order applies to strikes on Kyiv rather than representing a comprehensive ceasefire across the entire front. Russian state media reported that the suspension was to begin at midnight and continue for three days, while Ukraine was also expected to observe a ceasefire during the period.
The diplomatic initiative comes as the Trump administration continues trying to bring the two sides toward an agreement after more than four years of war. Witkoff and Kushner have emerged as key intermediaries in those efforts, holding repeated contacts with Russian and Ukrainian officials.
For now, the three-day pause offers a temporary respite for Kyiv while the American envoys conduct their meetings — but whether the diplomatic push can produce a broader halt to the fighting remains unresolved.
{Matzav.com}
