President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 72-hour halt to Russian strikes against Kyiv starting at midnight Saturday, as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for high-level talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Kyiv will pause attacks on Moscow through Monday, seeking to reactivate stalled peace efforts.
U.S. Envoys Arrive in Moscow for Stalled Peace Talks
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow on Saturday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, marking the first stop in a diplomatic push to restart negotiations. The last known visit to Moscow by the U.S. delegation took place in January, when they met with Putin in the Kremlin, and neither official has previously visited Kyiv. Russian state news agency Tass reported that the envoys were greeted at the airport by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who shared photographs of the delegation alongside the caption Bienvenidos a Moscú, pacificadores
(Welcome to Moscow, peacemakers).
Kremlin presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Tass that Putin ordered a three-day pause in attacks targeting the Ukrainian capital starting from midnight today. Peskov confirmed the temporary cessation is tied directly to the delegation’s scheduled visit to the Ukrainian capital, which Kyiv has said will take place on Sunday, though he added that there was no talk of new ideas to resolve the conflict. Washington’s diplomatic momentum to end the combats, which are already in their fifth year, has lost momentum with the attention of the United States focused, during the last six months, on its war with Iran.
Mutual Weekend Strikes Pause in Capitals Ahead of Visit
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine is prepared to halt aerial strikes against Moscow through the weekend and into Monday. Zelenskyy expressed that from now until the end of Saturday, as well as Sunday and Monday, Ukraine was ready to refrain from attacks against Moscow, and they expected the Russians to do the same regarding Kiev. On Friday, Zelenskyy urged Russia to correspond the pause in aerial attacks.
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin presidential spokesperson, stated via Tass that Putin had ordered that attacks not be carried out against Kiev for three days, starting from midnight today.
The visit took place while both parties intensified their respective air campaigns, 4 and a half years after the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor. With peace efforts stalled, Russia intensified its attacks against Kyiv and other cities with relentless bombardments that recently have occurred even by day, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of air defense systems. On Friday, a Russian dron reached one of the most important government buildings in Kyiv: the headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, one of the agencies responsible for attacks in the interior of Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s long-range operations have hit enemy military installations, oil refineries, and e-commerce centers, in an attempt to undermine the war effort and the economy of the country, as well as to make everyday citizens feel the consequences.
Diplomatic Context Behind the Current Push
According to Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, Moscow received the request to suspend attacks against the Ukrainian capital for three days por canales oficiales
(through official channels
), though he did not confirm if the proposal proceeded from Washington. Donald Trump announced that his enviados will bring a proposal to end the war. During the meeting, Putin stated that he understood that President Trump was facing a difficult situation in general, but continued to strive to resolve and contribute to the solution of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The North American envoys thanked him in exchange for his latest gesture: the delivery on August 11 of the U.S. citizen Robert Gilman, condemned to prison for facing authority, without asking for any Russian detainee in return. Witkoff and Kushner have visited Moscow several times in the last year and a half, but this will be their first trip to Kyiv. According to several sources from the Kyiv Independent newspaper, their presence in the Ukrainian capital has been up in the air after Witkoff “began to worry” about the effect of that meeting on Putin’s opinion. As Putin apostó hace años por alejar a Washington de Ucrania mientras siembra disensión en Europa con sabotajes (Putin bet years ago on distancing Washington from Ukraine while sowing dissension in Europe with sabotages), the diplomatic window remains narrow as negotiators prepare for Sunday’s visit to Kyiv.
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