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 — arrived on Saturday in Moscow to meet with Mr. Putin. They are expected to head next to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in an effort to reignite talks to end the war there.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner are making their first trip to Russia since January. A month after that visit, U.S.-backed peace negotiations went into a deep freeze when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
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. On social media, Mr. Dmitriev posted pictures of the arrival and called the envoys “peacemakers.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said shortly after their arrival 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 at midnight on Saturday.
“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,” and he vowed to retaliate against Russian airspace next week. All civilian airports in Ukraine have been closed since Russia invaded in 2022.
Mr. Zelensky had said previously that Ukrainian forces would not conduct airstrikes on Russia while the envoys were there, and he had called on Mr. Putin to reciprocate by temporarily halting strikes on Ukraine.
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.
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.
The U.S. envoys’ visit to the Russian capital is taking place days after the C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, traveled there. Mr. Ratcliffe delivered a bleak assessment of Moscow’s prospects in the war and urged Russian officials to end it.
The talks follow 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 Ukrainian 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 continue to insist that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in the country’s east, 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 and Cassandra Vinograd contributed reporting.
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