Agencies | Mascow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered a three-day halt to Russian strikes on Kyiv as US President Donald Trump’s special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
The US envoys are expected to meet Putin and other Russian officials as part of Washington’s latest diplomatic effort to broker an end to the conflict. They are carrying a US proposal aimed at resolving the war, although details of the plan have not been made public.
Putin’s order came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Kyiv would suspend its own airstrikes during the US delegation’s visit and called on Moscow to take a similar step.
“There will be no air strikes from our side, and Russia must do the same,” Zelenskyy said on X, urging Moscow to ensure a pause for the duration required to conduct the talks and manage logistical arrangements related to the US visit.
Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to Moscow marks the first leg of their two-part diplomatic mission. Following their meetings with Putin and Russian officials, the two are expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday, September 6, where they will meet Zelenskyy. It will be their first visit to the Ukrainian capital in their current diplomatic roles.
The diplomatic initiative comes amid a renewed escalation in the nearly four-year-old war. Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, including a strike on the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in central Kyiv on Friday.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has continued launching long-range drone strikes against targets inside Russian territory.
The latest US diplomatic push follows the stalling of Russia-Ukraine negotiations mediated by Washington earlier this year. Despite renewed efforts to bring the two sides closer to an agreement, significant differences remain, particularly over territorial control and Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO.
The meetings in Moscow and Kyiv are expected to focus on narrowing those differences and exploring the possibility of a framework for ending the conflict.
