Putin orders 72-hour Kyiv strike pause as US envoys reach Moscow

Putin ordered a 72-hour halt to strikes on Kyiv as US envoys arrived in Moscow for renewed peace efforts. The pause may protect the capital briefly, but wider attacks and deep mistrust continue.

In Short

• Zelenskyy pledged to halt airstrikes during the American envoys' Ukraine visit
• A Russian drone hit Kyiv's SBU headquarters after intensified city bombardments
• Missile strikes killed five workers at an industrial facility in Dnipropetrovsk

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 72-hour pause in strikes on Kyiv, the Kremlin said on Saturday, as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow in an effort to revive stalled talks on ending Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Tass, "Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today." He said the decision was linked to preparations for Witkoff and Kushner’s planned visit to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, as announced by Kyiv. The visit comes at a time when both sides have stepped up aerial attacks, more than four-and-a-half years after the war began.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would halt airstrikes during the envoys’ visit and urged Moscow to do the same. Washington’s efforts to end the fighting, now in its fifth year, have slowed in the past six months as US attention shifted to its war with Iran. The envoys’ last known visit to Moscow was in January, when they met Putin in the Kremlin. They have not previously visited Kyiv.

Tass reported that the US envoys were received at the airport by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who posted photographs of the delegation’s arrival with the caption, "Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers." With peace efforts making little progress, Russia has recently stepped up attacks on Kyiv and other cities, including bombardments that have stretched into daylight hours, as Ukraine faces shortages in air defence systems. On Friday, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, in Kyiv. The agency is among those involved in deep-strike operations inside Russia.

The long-range Ukrainian strikes have targeted Russian military facilities, oil refineries and e-commerce hubs, in an effort to weaken the Kremlin’s war effort and economy and bring the effects of the war home to ordinary citizens. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russia had launched overnight strikes on Kyiv and Boryspil airports and linked them to the planned US visit. "Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine," he said. He added, "We have taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace, which has become dangerous because of our drones and missiles in the sky. Of course, there are and will be no threats to diplomacy from our side."

Russian attacks also killed five people and wounded five others at an industrial facility in Ukraine’s southern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to local military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha. He identified those killed as workers at the site and said, "A locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist. People of peaceful professions. They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives." In a separate strike on the region’s Nikopol district, a 62-year-old man was wounded and several homes and an apartment building were damaged, he said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday that it had struck two metallurgical plants in the region, describing them as "major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine’s military production". In Ukraine’s Kyiv region, two more people were wounded in an overnight Russian attack, regional military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. In Boryspil district, a fire caused by a strike partly destroyed a nine-storey residential building. In the southern Mykolaiv region, drones repeatedly hit a shopping centre overnight, damaging retail premises and triggering fires, Ukraine’s state emergency services said. A 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were hurt. Emergency crews had to repeatedly pull back because of the risk of further strikes and returned whenever conditions allowed, the agency said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles from its Rostov and Voronezh regions and sent 167 attack drones overnight, including Shahed-type drones, around half of them jet-powered, as well as Geran and decoy drones. It said 128 drones were either shot down or suppressed. Elsewhere, officials in Russia’s Belgorod border region said Ukrainian attacks wounded three people, including a 14-year-old girl. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. The latest developments underlined a brief pause over Kyiv linked to diplomacy, even as both sides continued attacks elsewhere and the wider air war showed no sign of easing.

With PTI Inputs

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