Putin meets US envoys in Moscow as Ukraine war talks resume amid ongoing strikes

Russian president Vladimir Putin began talks with US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on ending more than four years of war in Ukraine in the Kremlin Saturday, ahead of their first visit to Kyiv expected on Sunday.

Both Russia and Ukraine vowed not to strike each other’s capitals for three days during the negotiations, as Washington tries to revive US-led talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.

The visit came as Donald Trump suggested on Friday a new proposal to end the war, without providing any details on what his new plan might be. Trump made ending the war a priority early in his second term, but his efforts have so far yielded little results.

Trump said his son-in-law Kushner and business ally Witkoff were bringing “a proposal to end the war”.

“Dear colleagues, I warmly welcome you to Moscow. The situation is, of course, not simple,” Putin told the envoys in a grand Kremlin hall in footage aired by Russian TV. “But before we begin to address it, I would like to ask everyone to convey their best wishes and words of gratitude to US president Mr Trump,” Putin said.

The talks come as the grinding war saw increasing civilian deaths and attacks this summer. Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.

The war, launched by Russia in 2022, has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

Russian strikes on Ukraine Saturday killed at least seven people, including in the Kyiv suburbs, Ukrainian officials said.

The Kremlin said it would not strike Kyiv from midnight Saturday, while the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he would halt strikes on Moscow “from now” until Monday.

“The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight tonight not to strike Kyiv for three days,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.

Zelenskyy, who had offered a truce during the US visits, later said he had spoken to the US envoys and also promised Kyiv would not strike Moscow.

“From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow,” he said on social media.

The Ukrainian leader said he had spoken to the US officials and that he expected them in Kyiv Sunday.

Russia had earlier struck Kyiv suburbs, with Zelenskyy accusing Moscow of trying to disrupt their visit with overnight attacks on Kyiv’s two airports – as well as on civilian targets in the Dnipro region that killed five people.

“Two people were killed in the Bucha district” outside Kyiv, the head of the Kyiv region, Tymur Tkachenko, said.

Large gaps remain between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the war. On Friday, the Kremlin said it was sticking by the position Putin set out two years earlier – that Ukraine should give up four regions claimed by Russia and not join Nato. That position is intolerable to Ukraine.

Witkoff and Kushner were expected to visit Kyiv on Sunday, which would be the first time the two envoys have visited the Ukrainian capital. Both have visited Moscow before, most recently in January when they met Putin in the Kremlin.

As peace efforts floundered in recent months, with US attention turned to its war with Iran, the conflict has intensified.

Ground troops have been locked in a grinding stalemate along the 775-mile (1,250km) frontline with little advances on either side. Both sides have intensified their aerial attacks in recent weeks, hitting increasingly distant targets.

Ukraine has carried out long-range strikes on Russian military facilities, oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses, to try to degrade Russia’s war effort and economy. Its strikes on Russian oil refineries have led to fuel shortages and rising prices at the pump.

On Friday, a Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), one of the agencies responsible for carrying out deep-strike operations in Russia. Zelenskyy has vowed to retaliate. Russia has also increased its attacks on Kyiv and other cities with waves of bombardments, stretching Ukraine’s air defence systems.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to disrupt the envoys’ visit to Ukraine with strikes on Kyiv’s two airports overnight. “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,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

Officials visiting Ukraine have largely done so by train, as Ukrainian airspace has been closed since 2022 due to the war.

On Friday, Russia carried out overnight strikes, killing five people and wounding five more at a factory in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the local military administration head, Oleksandr Hanzha. He said those killed were employees working at the factory who were “doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives.”

A 62-year-old man was injured and several homes and a building were damaged in another attack on the region’s Nikopol district, Hanzha said.

Russia also struck a shopping centre in the southern Mykolaiv region with drones overnight, damaging the building and injuring a 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl. Emergency services said they were repeatedly forced to withdraw because of the threat of more strikes.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 167 drones overnight, including jet-powered UAVs. Ukrainian air defences disabled 128 of the drones, the air force said.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight.