Trump envoys win three-day halt on capital strikes from Putin as Kyiv visit looms

US President Donald Trump’s top negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, secured a three-day halt on strikes against Moscow and Kyiv during a three-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday, 5 September. The envoys are now scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Sunday for further talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed.

Kremlin-released footage showed Putin greeting the two Americans, thanking Trump for his peacemaking efforts and saying he was “comfortable” working with them. According to Russian state media, Putin agreed to order a halt to strikes on Kyiv for three days due to the US visit. In televised remarks, Putin stressed that the measure applies only to the capitals, not to the rest of Ukraine, and that Russia has not agreed to a broader ceasefire BBC News.

Zelenskyy, who spoke with Witkoff and Kushner ahead of their Moscow meeting, said Ukraine will also refrain from strikes on Moscow from Saturday through Monday. “We are ready for a substantive conversation” in Kyiv, he said BBC News.

The three-day pause on capital strikes is the first concrete, if limited, result of a diplomatic push that began in late August. On 28 August, Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine had received information from the US about meetings in Moscow Ukrainska Pravda. By 30 August, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would only meet Trump and Zelenskyy to “formalise agreements” and accused Ukraine of not wanting a “real settlement” — which Russia typically defines as Ukrainian capitulation Ukrainska Pravda.

Despite the Kremlin’s hardline rhetoric, the envoys’ visit to Moscow went ahead. Trump said on Friday that Witkoff and Kushner were “bringing with them a proposal to end the war”. The content of that proposal has not been disclosed. Zelenskyy, in his 31 August address, said that intelligence from Ukraine and its partners indicates that “the Russian leader personally wants more war”, even though “the absolute majority” of the Russian public would agree to stop fighting along the current line of contact. He added that “September could change a lot” Ukrainska Pravda.

The diplomatic acceleration coincides with separate US-Ukraine talks on long-term military production. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on 2 September that Washington is negotiating licences for Ukraine to produce Patriot missile interceptors. Rubio cautioned that even if a licence is granted, building factories for such sophisticated systems would take “multiple years” and would not solve Ukraine’s immediate air-defence shortages Ukrainska Pravda.

For Kyiv, the three-day halt on capital strikes is a tactical gesture rather than a strategic shift. Zelenskyy has made clear that Ukraine will only accept a comprehensive ceasefire that includes the entire front line. The envoys’ Kyiv visit on 6 September will test whether the US proposal can bridge the gap between Putin’s demand for a deal that formalises Russian gains and Ukraine’s insistence on a just peace.

What comes next depends on whether the limited pause can be extended or expanded. The Kremlin has already signalled that it sees the Moscow meeting as a one-off, not the start of a broader process. Yet the fact that Trump’s envoys sat with Putin for three hours and secured even a symbolic concession suggests that the US administration is determined to keep pushing for a diplomatic off-ramp — with or without a willing partner in Moscow.