Russia; Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt aerial strikes on each other's capitals for three days as US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visit the two countries in the latest diplomatic push to negotiate an end to the four-and-a-half-year war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces not to strike Kyiv for three days beginning "at midnight today", Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday as Putin met US envoys Kushner and Witkoff in Moscow later in the evening.
Following a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine was also prepared to refrain from strikes on Moscow, effective immediately through 7 September.
I have just spoken with the U.S. President’s envoys. They have already begun working with the Russian side today. From the moment of this conversation, we are ready to observe a ceasefire in airstrikes against the cities involved in the negotiation process. From now through the…
Zelenskyy added that plans for diplomatic meetings in Kyiv on 6 September had been approved and that Ukraine was awaiting Witkoff and Kushner for what he called a "substantive conversation".
Witkoff and Kushner landed in Moscow earlier on 5 September and are expected to travel to Kyiv on 6 September.
The latest development followed three hours and 10 minutes of talks between Putin and the US envoys in Moscow on Saturday.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said early Sunday that Putin had held "substantive, constructive, and extremely frank talks" with Witkoff and Kushner in a trusting atmosphere.
Ushakov said the discussions on "extremely serious issues" took place in a working-format setting and informally over dinner.
Putin reaffirmed Russia's readiness to continue joint work with the United States in search of political and diplomatic solutions to the conflict in Ukraine, Ushakov said.
The talks were not confined to resolving the Ukraine crisis. Economic matters and potential large-scale, mutually beneficial Russian-US projects were also discussed in considerable detail, according to Ushakov.
Ushakov said that the US envoys pledged that during their upcoming contacts in Kyiv tomorrow, they would relay observations and assessments they had received directly from the Russian president regarding reaching a durable peaceful settlement to the Ukraine conflict.