Russian president Vladimir Putin began talks with US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin on Saturday, aimed at ending more than four years of war in Ukraine, in advance of the pair’s expected first visit to Kyiv on Sunday.
Both Russia and Ukraine vowed not to strike each other’s capitals for three days during the negotiations, as Washington tries to revive US-led talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since the second World War.
The visit came as US president Donald Trump suggested on Friday a new proposal to end the war, without providing any details on what his new plan might be. Trump made ending the war a priority early in his second term, but little has changed so far.
Trump said his son-in-law Kushner and business ally Witkoff were bringing “a proposal to end the war”.
“Dear colleagues, I warmly welcome you to Moscow. The situation is, of course, not simple,” Putin told the envoys in a grand Kremlin hall in footage aired by Russian TV.
“But before we begin to address it, I would like to ask everyone to convey their best wishes and words of gratitude to US president Mr Trump.”
The talks come as the grinding war, launched by Russia in 2022, saw increasing civilian deaths and attacks this summer. Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine. The war has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
Russian strikes on Ukraine on Saturday killed at least seven people, including in the Kyiv suburbs, Ukrainian officials said.
The Kremlin said it would not strike Kyiv from midnight on Saturday, while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would halt strikes on Moscow “from now” until Monday.
A Ukrainian artillery unit fires a howitzer at Russian positions near Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, in December 2025. Photograph: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
“The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight tonight not to strike Kyiv for three days,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.
Zelenskiy, who had offered a truce during the US visits, later said he had spoken to the US envoys and also promised Kyiv would not strike Moscow.
“From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow,” he said on social media.
He said he had spoken to the US officials and that he expected them in Kyiv on Sunday.
Large gaps remain between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the war. On Friday, the Kremlin said it was sticking by the position Putin set out two years earlier – that Ukraine should give up four regions claimed by Russia and not join Nato. That position is intolerable to Ukraine.
As peace efforts floundered in recent months, with US attention turned to its war with Iran, the conflict has intensified.
Ground troops have been locked in a grinding stalemate along the 1,250km frontline with little advances on either side. Both sides have intensified their aerial attacks in recent weeks, hitting increasingly distant targets.
Ukraine has carried out long-range strikes on Russian military facilities, oil refineries and ecommerce warehouses, to try to degrade Russia’s war effort and economy. Its strikes on Russian oil refineries have led to fuel shortages and rising prices at the pump.
On Friday, a Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, one of the agencies responsible for carrying out deep-strike operations in Russia. Zelenskiy has vowed to retaliate. Russia has also increased its attacks on Kyiv and other cities with waves of bombardments, stretching Ukraine’s air defence systems.
Officials visiting Ukraine have largely done so by train, as Ukrainian airspace has been closed since 2022 due to the war.
Russia had earlier struck Kyiv suburbs, reportedly killing two people in the Bucha district. Another attack on the Dnipro region killed five people and wounded five more at a factory, according to the local military administration head, Oleksandr Hanzha.
He said those killed were employees working at the factory who were “doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives”. A 62-year-old man was injured and several homes and a building were damaged in another attack on the region’s Nikopol district, Hanzha said.
Russia also struck a shopping centre in the southern Mykolaiv region with drones overnight, damaging the building and injuring a 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl. Emergency services said they were repeatedly forced to withdraw because of the threat of more strikes.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 167 drones overnight, including jet-powered UAVs. Ukrainian air defences disabled 128 of the drones, the air force said.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. – The Guardian