By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered a 72-hour pause on strikes in Ukrainian territory, the Kremlin said, as U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived Moscow in an effort to revive a stalled push to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Kyiv.
“Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Tass news agency.
He said the decision was tied to preparations for Witkoff and Kushner’s planned visit to the Ukrainian capital, which Kyiv has said will take place on Sunday.
Peskov also confirmed that Kushner and Witkoff would meet Putin during their visit, but said there was “no talk of new ideas” to end the conflict.
The envoys’ trip comes as both sides escalate aerial attacks, about four and half years after the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbour.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine would halt airstrikes during the envoys’ visit and urged Moscow to do the same.
Washington’s push to end the fighting, now in its fifth year, has lost momentum as U.S. attention has been focused for the past six months on its war with Iran.
The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was in January, when they met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. They have never previously visited Kyiv.
The envoys were met at the airport in Moscow by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Tass reported. Dmitriev shared photos of him meeting the U.S. delegation as they disembarked, alongside the caption, “Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers.”
With peace efforts stalled, Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv and other cities with relentless bombardments recently stretching into daylight hours, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of air defensive systems.
On Friday, a Russian drone hit one of the most important government buildings in Kyiv, the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, which is one of the agencies involved in carrying out deep-strike operations inside Russia.
The long-range strikes by Ukraine have hit Russian military facilities, oil refineries and e-commerce hubs, seeking to undermine the Kremlin’s war effort and economy, as well as make ordinary citizens feel the consequences of the war.
