As Ukraine gets ready for a visit from US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a three-day pause to Russian strikes on Kyiv.
“The Russian president and commander in chief… has given the order not to strike Kyiv for three days from midnight tonight,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated.
The temporary halt was announced by the Kremlin on Saturday in conjunction with a high-stakes visit by US President Donald Trump’s special envoys to Ukraine with a proposal aimed at ending the war.
The US envoys’ visit coincided with both adversaries intensifying their aerial assaults.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, suggested a short-term cease-fire with Russia on Friday. “There will be no air strikes from our side, and Russia must mirror this by ensuring silence without its air strikes for the time needed to hold these negotiations and resolve the logistical issues associated with this American visit,” Zelensky said, recommending a truce.
“We’ll see what proposals Steve and Jared have and what Moscow will say to them,” Zelensky wrote, adding that Ukraine is concerned about the envoys and “not Russia” and that the nation wants “real options” to end the four-and-a-half-year conflict.
Russia has been persistently attacking civilian areas during the day in Kyiv and other Ukrainian towns in recent days. A Russian drone struck Ukraine’s Security Service headquarters on Friday. It is one of the most significant structures in Kyiv and one of the organizations that assisted in conducting attacks deep within Russia.
In the meantime, Ukraine has launched long-range strikes against Russian military installations, oil refineries, and e-commerce centers in an effort to weaken the Kremlin’s economy and war effort while also making common people feel the effects of the conflict.
Since the US has been concentrating on its conflict with Iran for the past six months, Washington’s efforts to put a stop to the combat, which is now in its fifth year, have lost steam.
Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Kushner, met Putin at the Kremlin during their most recent documented trip to Moscow in January. Zelensky that he was expecting them in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, despite the fact that they have never been to Kyiv.
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