Overview
- The U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday, Sept. 5, and were met by presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev ahead of a reported meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
- The Kremlin announced a 72‑hour halt to strikes on Kyiv starting Sept. 5 to coincide with the visits, a move Kyiv matched by pledging to suspend its own airstrikes for the mission.
- Ukrainian officials said Russia carried out high‑profile strikes in the days before the trip, including a drone strike on the SBU headquarters and attacks on Kyiv and Boryspil airports that Kyiv said appeared aimed at disrupting diplomacy.
- Violence continued elsewhere despite the pause, with Russian attacks killing civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region and Ukraine reporting that Russian forces launched 167 attack drones overnight while its air defences shot down or suppressed 128.
- Major gaps remain on core issues—territorial concessions and NATO aspirations—so the envoys’ work is likely to test whether limited, interim steps can be agreed and whether temporary pauses can protect negotiators and civilians.