Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 72-hour halt to military strikes on Kyiv starting Saturday midnight, according to the Kremlin, coinciding with a diplomatic visit to Moscow by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The high-level delegation arrived in the Russian capital to attempt a revival of stalled diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the ongoing war in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year.
Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the temporary cessation of attacks to Russia’s Tass news agency, stating that the directive was tied directly to preparations for Witkoff and Kushner’s scheduled travel to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday. Peskov also noted that the U.S. envoys would hold a meeting with Putin during their stay, though he maintained that there was “no talk of new ideas” currently on the table to resolve the conflict, according to Tass reporting.
Diplomatic Mission Amid Escalating Air Campaigns
The visit by Witkoff and Kushner marks their first trip to Kyiv, though Trump’s son-in-law and the U.S. envoy previously met with Putin in the Kremlin in January. Washington’s diplomatic push has faced persistent hurdles, with U.S. attention heavily diverted over the preceding six months toward the conflict with Iran. The current diplomatic outreach arrives as fighting along the 1,250-kilometer front line experiences intense stagnation, prompting both nations to step up aerial bombardments.
Upon arriving in Moscow, the U.S. delegation was greeted at the airport by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Tass published photographs of the meeting featuring Dmitriev and the arriving U.S. officials, accompanied by the caption “Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers.”
Prior to the announced pause, Russian forces intensified long-range attacks on Kyiv and other urban centers, capitalizing on Ukraine’s depleted air defense stockpiles. On Friday, a Russian drone strike targeted the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, in Kyiv.
Kyiv Prepares for U.S. Arrival and Airspace Adjustments
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Friday that Ukraine would halt airstrikes during the American delegation’s visit and called on Moscow to reciprocate the gesture. In a social media statement on Saturday, Zelenskyy addressed overnight Russian strikes targeting Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, explicitly linking the timing of the assault to preparations for the U.S. delegation’s travel.
“Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. He added that Ukraine would adjust its operations regarding Russian airspace in the coming week while confirming that diplomatic efforts faced no threats from the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, kinetic impacts continued outside the capital. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the local military administration, reported that Russian strikes killed five civilian employees at an industrial facility in Ukraine’s southern Dnipropetrovsk region. The victims were identified as a locksmith, an electrician, a plumber, and a machinist. A separate attack in the region’s Nikopol district wounded a 62-year-old man and damaged multiple residential structures. In response to those strikes, Russia’s Ministry of Defense asserted that its operations targeted two regional metallurgical facilities described by Moscow as major suppliers of metal products.
>Related reading