US special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday carrying what President Donald Trump has described as a fresh proposal to end the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Kirill Dmitriev, special representative of President Vladimir Putin, met the pair at Vnukovo airport, and a motorcade carrying the three left for the city. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would receive the envoys later in the day.

As they landed, the Kremlin announced that Putin had ordered his military to carry out no strikes on Kyiv for three days from midnight on Saturday. Peskov said the pause was “connected with the preparation for and conduct of the Americans’ contacts in Kyiv.” The envoys are due in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, their first visit there.

Trump called the two men “great negotiators” at the White House on Friday. “They’re bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” he said, adding that “there may be a good chance we will do it.” He did not set out its terms.

Moscow signals no compromise

Russian officials gave little indication of flexibility. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS that Washington “must take into account the realities on the ground in the matter of Ukrainian settlement, where the situation is changing not in Kyiv’s favor.”

The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin’s long-standing demands — that Ukraine cede the entire territory of four regions Russia claims, and abandon its bid to join NATO — remained “unshakeable.” A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin intended to take more ground first: “There is no chance of reaching an agreement regarding the front line until Putin finishes securing the remaining part of the Donetsk region.” Western analysts regard that as improbable.

Strikes continue up to the visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian missiles struck two airports near Kyiv, including Boryspil, hours before the envoys were due. He linked the strikes to the possibility of the American delegation flying in rather than arriving overland by rail.

A Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service on Friday, the tenth consecutive day of heavy attacks on the capital. Zelensky, who has said a shortage of air defence interceptors has left Ukraine exposed to ballistic missiles, said his goal was talks “as constructive and substantive as possible.”

Update, September 6: the meeting ran three hours, with no breakthrough

The talks went ahead in the Kremlin and lasted more than three hours, ending without any sign of a settlement.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called them “highly useful” and said Witkoff and Kushner had “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement” — without saying what those ideas were, the Daily Mirror reported and Hiru News confirmed, both carrying Reuters.

Ushakov said Putin told the envoys Russia was making “real progress” on the battlefield and was confident of achieving its goals, while stressing the need to address “all the root causes of the conflict” — the same formulation Moscow has used since February 2022.

“The talks went beyond a mere exchange of views on resolving the Ukrainian crisis. Economic issues and potential major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects were discussed in some detail,” Ushakov said. A White House official told Reuters the talks had been “substantive,” and that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks. There was no comment from Witkoff or Kushner, who flew out of Moscow soon afterwards.

Kirill Dmitriev, who met the envoys at the airport, posted on X that it had been an “important peacemaking visit.”

Putin on camera

Footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin greeting the pair and telling them the situation “is not so easy,” Ada Derana reported, carrying BBC copy. He said Russia would explain “how we see the situation,” and added: “in any case, whatever happens, such contacts are undoubtedly always useful.”

He said he was “comfortable” working with the two men — “of course on our side there is quite a high level of trust during this work” — and praised Trump for persisting: “Understanding that he is entering a difficult situation, he nevertheless does not stop his efforts.”

The strike pause is mutual, and narrow

The three-day pause reported above is reciprocal, and its limits are now clear.

Witkoff thanked Putin for agreeing with Ukraine to halt strikes on each other’s capitals. Zelensky had said earlier: “From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow, and we expect the Russians to do the same regarding Kyiv.”

In televised remarks, Putin said Russia had not agreed to a ceasefire for the rest of Ukraine outside the capital — so the pause covers two cities, not the war. He said he would “ensure the security of the negotiating process” and of the mediators.

The envoys are due in Kyiv on Sunday to meet Zelensky, their first visit to Ukraine. How they will travel is unclear: Ukrainian airspace has been closed since the full-scale invasion began. Zelensky said Friday he would guarantee the safety of Russian airspace during the visit and called on Russia to do the same — and linked Saturday’s “demonstrative” strikes on Kyiv and Boryspil airports to the possibility of the US team flying in.

Ada Derana also reported that an overnight Russian strike on a civilian building in the Dnipro region caused casualties.

A note on the accounts

Ada Derana carried the BBC’s report and the Daily Mirror and Hiru News both carried Reuters, so the two versions are not independent of each other in the way three separate bylines would suggest. They differ slightly on duration — the BBC copy says the talks “lasted for three hours” per Russian state media, Reuters says “more than three hours” — and only the Reuters copy carries Ushakov’s quotes, while only the BBC copy carries Putin’s on-camera remarks and Zelensky’s account of the airport strikes.

Update: September 6 — the Kyiv leg, by train

The envoys made the visit previewed above. Zelensky greeted Witkoff and Kushner at Kyiv’s St Sophia Cathedral on Sunday — their first visit to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion — close to where a Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s security service on Friday, Ada Derana reported, carrying BBC copy.

The travel question left open above is answered: they flew to Poland and completed the journey by train. Zelensky told reporters it had not been possible to land their plane despite the preparations — the guarantees of safe airspace he had sought on Friday did not, in the event, produce a flight into Kyiv.

Ahead of the meeting Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to talk about bringing “the end of the war closer,” while repeating that security guarantees and a dignified post-war peace would be required. On Sunday he wrote that Ukraine “has always been and will remain constructive,” adding: “We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A dignified character of the postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are ready.”

Ada Derana’s account also settles the duration dispute noted above on the side of the BBC copy: Saturday’s Moscow talks lasted three hours, held behind closed doors at Putin’s official residence, according to Russian state media.

The three-day pause is holding only over the capitals

The reciprocal halt covers Moscow and Kyiv, and the overnight exchanges show how narrow that is.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said its forces struck the Ryazan oil refinery, which supplies the Russian army, an airfield at Rostov-on-Don, and two air defence systems. Russia attacked with 108 long-range drones and small cruise missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said; air defences downed 82 drones and six missiles, but 11 locations were hit and debris fell at seven more sites.

Neither capital was reported struck — the pause functioning as agreed, while the war outside the two cities continued at full intensity, exactly as Putin said it would.

Sources