MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin for more than three hours on Saturday, and by nightfall he had ordered a rare pause in Russian strikes on Kyiv, clearing the way for the two men to fly on to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday in the first visit by Trump administration negotiators to Kyiv since the war began.
The Kremlin said Putin ordered a 72-hour halt to strikes on Kyiv starting at midnight Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky matched the gesture, confirming that Ukrainian forces would refrain from strikes on Moscow through Monday. It is one of the few mutual, if temporary and narrowly scoped, de-escalation steps either side has taken in the war's fifth year, and it was timed explicitly to the envoys' travel schedule rather than to any broader truce, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday accompanied by officials from the National Security Council, the State Department and the Treasury Department, according to NBC News. Their talks with Putin, described by Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov as "constructive, frank and useful," covered the battlefield situation, next steps toward ending the war and possible joint U.S.-Russia economic projects, though no details of any settlement were released. Putin opened the meeting by asking the envoys to pass along "warm wishes and gratitude" to President Trump, calling the overall situation "not simple."
A Pause, Not a Ceasefire
The truce covers only the two capitals, and only for a matter of days. Hours before it took effect, Russian forces struck the Kyiv and Boryspil airports overnight for the first time in months, according to Zelensky, along with a civilian plant in Kamianske that killed four people and a missile strike on Bucha that killed two. Zelensky said the airport strikes were "deliberately" timed to discussions of which airfield the American delegation might use to fly into Ukraine, and said Kyiv would "adjust" its posture toward Russian airspace as a result.
"Constructive, frank and useful."
Yuri Ushakov, Kremlin foreign policy adviser, describing the Putin-Witkoff-Kushner talks
Officials on both sides described the visit as an attempt to revive, rather than conclude, a negotiation that has been largely frozen for nearly eight months since earlier rounds of U.S.-brokered talks in Geneva and Abu Dhabi produced no lasting agreement. Russian officials reiterated that no compromise has yet been reached on the central sticking point, territory, which Moscow says remains the issue "without which the crisis cannot be settled."
Zelensky Awaits a "Substantive" Conversation
Zelensky, who confirmed the Kyiv leg of the trip after weeks of uncertainty over logistics and security, said he hoped for "a visit and negotiations with the American side that are as constructive and substantive as possible." Ukrainian officials have pushed for the visit to yield concrete commitments on security guarantees and reconstruction financing rather than another round of talks about talks.
The diplomatic push comes as the war grinds into its fifth year with no sign of a battlefield resolution. Reaction from Congress and European capitals was muted over the weekend, with most governments waiting to see what, if anything, emerges from the Kyiv leg of the trip. Trump has publicly described the delegation as carrying an "idea for peace," though the White House has not released its contents.
Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet Zelensky and his senior security officials in Kyiv on Sunday. Whether the strike pause holds beyond its 72-hour window will likely depend on what, if anything, comes out of those meetings; officials on both sides have cautioned that any further steps, including a next round of talks, are not expected for several more weeks.
