Russian President Vladimir Putin opened renewed Ukraine peace talks Saturday with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as Moscow and Kyiv agreed to temporarily halt attacks on each other’s capitals during the diplomatic mission.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saturday with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in a renewed attempt to restart negotiations over ending the Russia-Ukraine war, as Moscow and Kyiv separately agreed to suspend strikes against each other’s capitals during the diplomatic effort.
The talks mark Washington’s latest attempt to revive a peace process that has lost momentum during six months in which U.S. attention has increasingly centered on the war with Iran.
Putin welcomed Witkoff and Kushner to the Kremlin and asked them to convey his warm wishes and gratitude to President Donald Trump. He described the situation surrounding the war in Ukraine as “not simple.”
The meeting was accompanied by a temporary restraint on attacks against the two capitals.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Tass news agency.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a corresponding commitment covering Moscow after speaking Saturday afternoon with the American delegation following its arrival in Russia.
“From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow, and we expect the Russians to do the same regarding Kyiv,” Zelenskyy said.
The pause offers a limited diplomatic opening rather than a broader ceasefire. Fighting elsewhere continues, and both countries carried out significant attacks immediately before the Kremlin meeting.
Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel next to Kyiv on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, marking their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of the current peace effort.
The Moscow and Kyiv stops place the American delegation in direct talks with both governments as Washington attempts to determine whether enough common ground exists to restart negotiations.
The last known visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Moscow occurred in January, when they also met Putin at the Kremlin.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has become increasingly involved alongside Witkoff in the administration’s diplomatic efforts.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met the Americans at the Moscow airport Saturday, according to Tass.
Dmitriev posted photographs showing him greeting the delegation as it disembarked and wrote, “Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers.”
The diplomatic activity unfolded against a backdrop of increasingly intense aerial warfare.
Russia has expanded its bombardment of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities as the conflict’s approximately 1,250-kilometer, or 775-mile, front line has produced limited territorial movement.
Moscow has increasingly deployed fast-moving, jet-powered attack drones, adding to the pressure on Ukrainian air defenses and extending some attacks into daylight hours.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has continued conducting long-range strikes inside Russia against military facilities, oil refineries and commercial infrastructure in an effort to damage Moscow’s military capabilities and economy and bring the consequences of the war deeper into Russian territory.
The escalation was evident in the hours immediately preceding Saturday’s meeting.
Ukraine said Russia attacked Kyiv and Boryspil international airports overnight, strikes Zelenskyy linked directly to preparations for the American delegation’s expected journey to Ukraine.
“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 Saturday.
He said Ukraine would take the attacks into account in planning future operations while maintaining that Kyiv would not deliberately interfere with diplomacy.
“We have taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace, which has become dangerous because of our drones and missiles in the sky. Of course, there are and will be no threats to diplomacy from our side.”
The airport attacks followed another high-profile strike in Kyiv on Friday.
A Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, one of the government agencies responsible for deep-strike operations against targets inside Russia.
The expanding air campaign has become increasingly important as neither military achieves rapid progress along the ground front.
Russia has sought to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of air-defense systems while Ukraine has attempted to impose economic and military costs on Moscow through increasingly long-range attacks.
Russian strikes also caused casualties elsewhere in Ukraine ahead of the Kremlin talks.
Five people were killed and five wounded at an industrial facility in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the local military administration.
Hanzha said those killed were civilian employees working at the facility.
“A locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist. People of peaceful professions. They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives,” he said.
A separate strike in the region’s Nikopol district wounded a 62-year-old man and damaged several houses and an apartment building, Hanzha said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russian forces had attacked two metallurgical facilities in the region, describing them as “major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine’s military production.”
Additional attacks struck the Kyiv region overnight.
Two people were wounded, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.
In the Boryspil district, a fire caused by one of the strikes partially destroyed a nine-story residential building.
Russian drones also repeatedly attacked a shopping center in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region overnight, damaging retail property and igniting fires, according to Ukraine’s state emergency services.
A 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were wounded.
Emergency personnel attempting to respond were repeatedly forced to pull back because additional attacks threatened the area, returning to fight the fires when conditions permitted.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles from the Rostov and Voronezh regions while deploying 167 attack drones overnight.
The drone force included Shahed-type aircraft, approximately half of which Ukraine said were jet-powered, along with Geran drones and decoys.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 128 of the incoming drones, according to the air force.
Ukraine continued attacks inside Russia as well.
Officials in Russia’s Belgorod border region said Ukrainian strikes wounded three people, including a 14-year-old girl.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The intensifying exchange illustrates the challenge facing Witkoff and Kushner as they try to revive negotiations.
Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and the conflict has since developed into a prolonged war involving extensive ground combat, missile attacks and increasingly sophisticated drone operations on both sides.
Earlier peace efforts have repeatedly struggled to overcome fundamental disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv over territory, security guarantees and the conditions under which fighting would end.
The latest U.S. initiative also follows months in which diplomatic attention shifted away from Ukraine as Washington became increasingly occupied with the Iran war.
Against that backdrop, the temporary suspension of strikes against Kyiv and Moscow provides a narrowly defined period of restraint surrounding the American diplomatic mission.
It does not prohibit attacks elsewhere in either country, and Saturday’s reports showed fighting continuing beyond the capitals.
The arrangement nevertheless gives Witkoff and Kushner an opportunity to move between Moscow and Kyiv while attacks on the two political centers are temporarily suspended.
Their first stage began at the Kremlin Saturday.
The second is expected Sunday, when the American envoys travel to Kyiv for direct discussions with Ukrainian officials.
Whether the visits can restart a broader negotiating process will depend on what emerges from the separate talks with Putin and the Ukrainian government, while the intensified missile and drone warfare surrounding the diplomatic mission demonstrates how far the conflict remains from a comprehensive ceasefire.
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