Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to refrain from striking Kyiv from midnight on September 5. The Kremlin said the move was linked to preparations for and the holding of meetings in the Ukrainian capital involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
This was announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
According to him, the pause in strikes on Kyiv will remain in effect for three days.
The Kremlin, however, declined to speculate on what specific proposals Witkoff and Kushner had brought to Moscow. Peskov said Donald Trump had stated the previous day that no new ideas were being discussed.
Peskov also said questions about why the U.S. negotiators were visiting Moscow before Kyiv should be addressed to the American side.
As a reminder, on September 5, U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow as part of a new diplomatic mission aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. They were met at Vnukovo-2 Airport by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, after which their motorcade headed toward Moscow.
After talks in Russia, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel to Kyiv. Bloomberg previously reported that Kremlin expectations for the new round of talks were “extremely low”, while Axios said Donald Trump had confirmed that the U.S. envoys were bringing Russia “a proposal to end the war”, without disclosing details.
