Kremlin says Putin ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv
The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leader of the aggressor state, ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv, Ukraine. According to Anadolu Agency, citing the Kremlin, the pause is to begin at midnight local time.
Kremlin statement
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Russian state agency TASS that the order would take effect at 00:00 local time, or 21:00 Greenwich Mean Time. According to him, the decision is linked to U.S. talks in Kyiv.
Earlier on Saturday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. They are expected to visit Kyiv for the first time on Sunday after their trip to Moscow.
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Visits and talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Kyiv would not carry out strikes during Witkoff and Kushner's visit to Russia. He also called on Moscow to take reciprocal steps when the U.S. representatives arrive in Ukraine.
Witkoff and Kushner had not previously visited Kyiv, but have traveled to Moscow several times since the start of U.S.-mediated talks. Their most recent visit to Moscow took place on January 22, when they met Putin at the Kremlin. Trump said on Friday that Witkoff and Kushner would travel to Moscow not with new proposals, but with a proposal to end the war.
The latest rounds of U.S.-mediated talks took place on January 23–24 and February 4–5 in Abu Dhabi, as well as on February 17–18 in Geneva. The talks later paused; Moscow and Kyiv explained this by Washington shifting its focus to Iran after the war began in late February.
