U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in Russia for negotiations on the war in Ukraine, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to order a three-day suspension of strikes.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-run TASS News Agency the pause started at midnight Saturday.
“This has to do with the Americans’ consultations that are being prepared and will be held in Kyiv,” Peskov said.
Ahead of Witkoff and Kushner’s arrival in Russia, President Donald Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office that “we have an idea for peace.”
He said Witkoff and Kushner were sent to Russia “to see whether or not we can get something done.”
“There may be a good chance that we’ll do it,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
Following their visit to Moscow, Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will be in Kyiv on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“Just as we did during previous diplomatic visits by the American side, we will ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so that the negotiators can arrive safely,” Zelenskyy said. “We are looking out for them, not for Russia.”
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to observe a ceasefire and have a “substantive conversation” with Witkoff and Kushner.
“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,” he said.
Zelenskyy says Russia struck Kyiv, Boryspil airports
Overnight, Zelenskyy said, there were “demonstrative Russian strikes” on airports in Kyiv and Boryspil.
“Deliberate, for the first time in a while,” he said.
Zelenskyy called the strikes a reaction to “the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials “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,” Zelenskyy added.
Another overnight Russian attack on an industrial facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine killed five people and injured five others, local military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha said, per the The Associated Press.
Among those who died were a “locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist” for the facility, Hanzha said.
“People of peaceful professions,” he said. “They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives.”
Zelenskyy said residential buildings in Kherson, Boryspil and the Kharkiv region were damaged, and drones struck shopping malls in Sumy and Mykolaiv as well.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it carried out strikes on two metallurgical plants in the region, the AP reported. The Russian Ministry of Defense said these were “major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine’s military production.”
The AP wrote Russia launched ballistic missiles from the Rostov and Voronezh regions, with 167 attack drones deployed overnight. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or suppressed 128 drones.
Russian forces, meanwhile, shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, the AP said. Ukrainian attacks in Belgorod wounded three people, one of them a 14-year-old girl.