President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Saturday ordered a 72-hour pause in attacks on kyiv ahead of a visit there by Trump administration envoys, even as Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with a large-scale bombing raid. The envoys — Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law — met in Moscow on Saturday with Putin at the Kremlin, their first trip to Russia since January. They are expected to head to kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in an effort to revive US-brokered talks to end the war. Speaking at the beginning of the meeting, Putin said: “the situation we have to deal with today is certainly not simple.” But, he added, “before I begin to do so, let me convey my best wishes and words of gratitude to the president of the United States, Mr. Trump.” Kushner greeted Putin by saying “happy holidays” in Russian, a reference to Moscow City Day, which falls on Saturday. Peace negotiations have been frozen since February, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, triggering a conflict that has consumed the attention of the Trump administration. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said shortly after Witkoff and Kushner landed in Moscow that they would meet with Putin. Peskov also said that the Russian leader had ordered the Russian armed forces to refrain from attacking kyiv for three days starting Saturday. Putin claimed that Russia had not launched attacks on kyiv since 12am on Saturday, although the city received airstrike warnings around that time and also several more times throughout the day. Russian attacks on other parts of Ukraine continued unabated. “This is related to preparations for holding American talks in kyiv,” Peskov said. Hours earlier, however, Ukraine was hit by a large-scale Russian attack that hit kyiv’s two main airports. In a statement, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the attacks were a Russian reaction to “discussions and preparations regarding the possibility of the American side using a plane to travel to Ukraine.” He vowed to retaliate against Russian airspace next week. All of Ukraine’s civilian airports have been closed since the Russian invasion in 2022. Later on Saturday, Zelensky said he had spoken with Witkoff and Kushner while they were in Moscow and that Ukraine would refrain from attacking Moscow until Monday. The night was unusually quiet throughout Russia. Russian airports, which are often forced to suspend operations due to Ukrainian attacks, were operating normally on Saturday morning. In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no drones had been shot down as they approached the capital. The visit by American envoys to the Russian capital came just over a week after CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled there to offer a grim assessment of Moscow’s prospects in the war and urge Russian officials to end it. Witkoff and Kushner were met at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport by Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy who is handling informal negotiations with the White House. They then had dinner at an upscale restaurant in central Moscow, about a mile north of the Kremlin. Outside, a caravan of about a dozen vehicles lined the busy street and a crowd of journalists waited for the delegation to leave. The inscriptions on the glass facade of the restaurant read: “Everything for victory!” More than three hours later, Kushner and Witkoff left for the Kremlin, traveling in a Russian-made Aurus limousine instead of the usual U.S. embassy vehicle typical for such high-level diplomatic visits. Witkoff has met regularly with Putin since Trump took office in January 2025. Later that year, Kushner began meeting Witkoff with the Russian leader. But the planned trip to kyiv would be the first by any of the American envoys, and follows a shift in the dynamics of the war. Since April, Ukraine has launched a campaign targeting Russian fuel and logistics infrastructure, bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians. took advantage of Ukraine’s depleted arsenal of air defense interceptors, allowing it to strike more targets across the country and making daily life in kyiv increasingly dangerous. On Friday, a drone attacked the headquarters of Ukraine’s national intelligence service in the heart of the capital. Russia and Ukraine also face growing financial strains to support a war that is becoming more costly, as both sides struggle to keep pace with advanced technologies such as jet drones and ballistic missiles. But war seems very far from any solution. Speaking on Friday, Peskov praised “the goodwill of the Americans,” who, he said, “are ready to continue their mediation efforts.” But he said Russia would continue to insist that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk before a ceasefire can take place, a demand Ukraine has rejected. Peskov’s comments followed remarks Thursday by Putin, who said that regardless of U.S. mediation efforts, “Russia and Ukraine must first reach an agreement between themselves.” Valerie Hopkins contributed reporting from Berlin and Cassandra Vinograd from kyiv, Ukraine.
