Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt strikes on each other’s capitals for three days, creating a narrow pause in attacks on Kyiv and Moscow as US-brokered talks on ending the war gather pace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin on Sept. 5. Their late-night meeting lasted approximately three hours and ended past 11:00 pm in Moscow. The envoys were expected to visit Kyiv on Sept. 6.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had ordered Russian forces to stop attacks on Kyiv from midnight. “The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight tonight not to strike Kyiv for three days,” Peskov stated. It remains unclear whether the reference to midnight meant midnight Sept. 5–6 or Sept. 6–7.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would halt strikes on Moscow from Sept. 5 through the end of Sept. 7. At 5:21 p.m. local time on Sept. 5, he said: “From the moment of this conversation, we are ready to observe a halt in aerial strikes on the cities involved in the negotiating process.”
The arrangement leaves the wider conflict untouched. It applies to Kyiv and Moscow, while the brief pause does not amount to a general ceasefire or a halt to military operations elsewhere. Whether either side will comply throughout the period is unknown.
The agreement followed a day in which Russian attacks continued across Ukraine. Zelensky said Russian forces launched multiple strikes overnight on Sept. 5, including attacks on Kyiv. Russian strikes that day killed at least 10 people across Ukraine, including a child and family members in the Kharkiv region and two people outside Kyiv.
Zelensky said Russia had deliberately targeted airports in Kyiv and Boryspil overnight. Ukraine had proposed a broader pause in hostilities from Sept. 5–8 before the diplomatic talks, though Russia did not initially agree and continued its attacks on Sept. 5.
In a separate statement, Zelensky linked the capital-strikes pause to the safe passage of the American delegation. “As with previous diplomatic visits by the American side, we will ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so that the negotiators can arrive safely. We are concerned about their safety, not about Russia.”
US President Donald Trump said Kushner and Witkoff were bringing “a proposal to end the war.” The White House said the envoys had discussed “substantive plans” for the next steps towards ending the Ukraine war. The terms of the proposal and the plans discussed have not been disclosed.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the meeting as “useful” and said it covered “a range of ideas to end the war in Ukraine.” Putin told the US officials: “The situation is of course not simple.” He also said: “We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves.”
Putin thanked Trump for “not stopping” efforts to try to end the war launched by Russia in 2022. No agreement beyond the capital-strikes moratorium was announced after the Moscow talks, and Russia’s longer-term position on territorial demands in eastern Ukraine remains unknown.
The diplomatic contact comes after a sharp rise in aerial attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region since late August. Kyiv recorded 13 air raid alerts on Aug. 27 alone, the highest daily number since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions of people to flee their homes. The three-day arrangement offers a limited operational pause around the two capitals while the US envoys move from Moscow to Kyiv, with the larger questions of a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement still unresolved.
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