Russia and Ukraine agree 72-hour pause on capital strikes after Kremlin talks
Russia and Ukraine agreed to pause strikes on Kyiv and Moscow for 72 hours after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin for three hours. Per Al Jazeera/AFP and ITV News/AP.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin for three hours on September 5, 2026. Russia and Ukraine agreed to a 72-hour pause on strikes against each other's capitals, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Putin ordered no strikes on Kyiv starting at midnight Saturday; President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would refrain from strikes on Moscow in return. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks 'substantive' and said a series of peace ideas had been formulated, though Putin also told the envoys Russia is confident of achieving its goal of taking the rest of eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say Russian strikes killed at least seven people on Saturday, including in Kyiv suburbs; Russian local authorities say a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod killed one person and injured another. Neither casualty figure was independently verified beyond each side's own officials. Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Sunday, their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since Trump returned to office; Al Jazeera's correspondent described the trip as more ceremonial than likely to produce concrete results. Sources: Al Jazeera/AFP (aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/5/russias-putin-meets-us-envoys-to-discuss-trump-proposal-to-end-ukraine-war) and ITV News/AP (itv.com/news/2026-09-05/us-envoys-in-russia-to-try-and-revive-ukraine-peace-talks).