President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Saturday ordered a 72-hour pause in strikes on Kyiv ahead of a visit there by Trump administration envoys, even as Russian forces hit Ukraine overnight with a large-scale bombardment.
The envoys — Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law — met in Moscow on Saturday with Mr. Putin in the Kremlin, their first trip to Russia since January. They are expected to head next to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in an effort to reignite U.S.-brokered talks to end the war.
Speaking at the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Putin said, “the situation we have to deal with today is certainly not simple.” But, he added, “before we begin doing so, allow me to convey my best wishes and words of gratitude to the president of the United States, Mr. Trump.”
Mr. Kushner greeted Mr. Putin by saying “happy holiday” in Russian, referring to Moscow’s City Day, celebrated on Saturday.
Peace negotiations have been in a deep freeze since February, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, setting off a conflict that has consumed the Trump administration’s attention.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said shortly after Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner landed in Moscow that they would meet with Mr. Putin. Mr. Peskov also said that the Russian leader had ordered Russia’s armed forces to refrain from attacking Kyiv for three days starting on Saturday.
Mr. Putin asserted that Russia had not launched strikes against Kyiv since 12 a.m. Saturday, although the city came under air-raid warnings around then and also several more times throughout the day. Russian strikes elsewhere in Ukraine went on unabated.
“This is connected with the preparations for the conduct of talks of Americans in Kyiv,” Mr. Peskov said.
Hours earlier, however, Ukraine was hit by a large-scale Russian attack that struck Kyiv’s two main airports.
In a statement, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the strikes were a Russian reaction to “discussions and preparations for the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine.” He vowed to retaliate against Russian airspace next week. All civilian airports in Ukraine have been closed since Russia invaded in 2022.
Later on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said that he had spoken with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner while they were in Moscow and that Ukraine would refrain from striking Moscow through Monday.
The night was uncharacteristically quiet throughout Russia. Russian airports, which are often forced to suspend operations because of Ukrainian attacks, were operating normally on Saturday morning. In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that no drones had been shot down on approach to the capital.
The U.S. envoys’ visit to the Russian capital came a little over a week after the C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, traveled there to deliver a bleak assessment of Moscow’s prospects in the war and to urge Russian officials to end it.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were met at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport by Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy for Mr. Putin who handles informal negotiations with the White House.
They then dined at an upscale restaurant in central Moscow, roughly a mile north of the Kremlin. Outside, a motorcade of about a dozen vehicles lined the busy street and a crowd of journalists waited for the delegation to emerge. Inscriptions on the restaurant’s glass facade read: “Everything for Victory!”
More than three hours later, Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff departed for the Kremlin, traveling in a Russian-made Aurus limousine rather than the customary U.S. Embassy vehicle typical for such high-level diplomatic visits.
Mr. Witkoff has met regularly with Mr. Putin since Mr. Trump took office in January 2025. At the end of that year, Mr. Kushner began joining Mr. Witkoff for meetings with the Russian leader.
But the planned trip to Kyiv would be the first by either American envoy, and it follows a shift in the war’s dynamics.
Since April, Ukraine has launched a campaign targeting Russian fuel and logistics infrastructure, bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians.
Russia, for its part, has taken advantage of Ukraine’s depleted arsenal of air-defense interceptors, allowing it to strike more targets across the country and making daily life in Kyiv increasingly dangerous. On Friday, a drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service in the heart of the capital.
Russia and Ukraine also face mounting financial strain to support a war that is growing costlier, as both sides struggle to keep pace with advanced technologies, like jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles.
But the war appears far away from any resolution.
Speaking on Friday, Mr. Peskov praised “the good will of the Americans” who, he said, “are ready to continue their mediation efforts.” But he said Russia would keep insisting that Ukraine withdraw troops from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions before any cease-fire could occur — a demand that Ukraine has rejected.
Mr. Peskov’s comments followed statements on Thursday by Mr. Putin, who said that regardless of American mediation efforts, “Russia and Ukraine must first reach an agreement between themselves.”
Valerie Hopkins contributed reporting from Berlin, and Cassandra Vinograd from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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