Putin Declares 3-Day Cease-Fire in Kyiv as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff Land in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a three-day halt to strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrive in Moscow to present a new peace proposal. The ceasefire, set to begin at midnight Sunday, comes as the Trump administration renews efforts to end the four-and-a-half-year war.

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine, directing his forces to suspend strikes on Kyiv for three days as U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Saturday to revive stalled peace negotiations .

The three-day pause in attacks on the Ukrainian capital is set to begin at midnight Sunday and continue through September 9, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov . The move comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged that Ukraine would not conduct airstrikes during the envoys' visit, calling on Russia to reciprocate .

Trump Envoys Touch Down in Moscow

Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, and Witkoff, the president's special envoy, arrived at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Saturday morning . They were greeted by Russian Special Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who has participated in all previous U.S.-Russian negotiating sessions .

The visit marks the envoys' first trip to Russia since January, when they met with Putin in the Kremlin . They are expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday for their first-ever visit to the Ukrainian capital .

President Trump announced the mission on Friday, telling reporters that the envoys are "bringing with them a proposal to end the war" . While Trump declined to provide details, he expressed optimism: "There may be a good chance that we'll do it" .

Ceasefire Details and Skepticism

Peskov confirmed that Putin's ceasefire order applies specifically to Kyiv, not to other Ukrainian cities or broader front-line areas . The limited scope has drawn skepticism from Ukrainian officials, with Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, noting: "Putin is ordering a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv, on civilians. But he is not ordering a halt to strikes on the Kyiv region or other regions and cities of Ukraine" .

Despite the announcement, Russian forces struck Kyiv and Boryspil airports just hours before the envoys' arrival, according to Zelensky . The attack on Ukraine's domestic intelligence service headquarters in central Kyiv on Friday marked the first such strike since the conflict began .

A History of Broken Ceasefires

The temporary truce comes with a significant asterisk: Russia violated a previous three-day ceasefire announced by Trump in May, with Peskov noting at the time that "the issue of a Ukrainian settlement is too complex" . Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov had previously insisted that Moscow would only return to the negotiating table after Ukrainian forces withdraw from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions — a demand Kyiv has rejected .

Deep Divisions Remain

Despite the diplomatic flurry, major obstacles persist. Peskov warned against optimism, stating there is "no talk of new ideas" to end the war and reiterating Russia's territorial demands . Meanwhile, Zelensky has expressed openness to the U.S. proposal but stressed that any agreement must respect Ukraine's sovereignty .

Trump has framed the challenge in personal terms, telling reporters: "It's a problem of personalities between Russia and Ukraine. You have President Zelensky and President Putin. They really hate each other" .

The three-day pause in strikes on Kyiv offers a narrow window for diplomatic progress. But with Russia's territorial demands unchanged and Ukrainian skepticism high, the ceasefire may prove to be more symbolic than substantive — a brief pause in a war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The world will be watching as Kushner and Witkoff carry Trump's proposal from Moscow to Kyiv, hoping to turn a three-day truce into something more lasting.