President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a pause in strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, ahead of the meeting with President Trump’s envoys: his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the businessman Steve Witkoff.
Page A5From§Eachthe supper edition — 5 September 2026
Putin pauses bombing Kyiv again to meet U.S. envoys, running the same shuttle since 2018.
As it ran on the front
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Moscow this weekend to sit down with Vladimir Putin, and both capitals stood down for the occasion: Putin ordered a pause in strikes on Kyiv, and Kyiv agreed to hold its own fire on Moscow, according to CBS News. The Hill reports that Putin authorized a 72-hour pause on strikes against Kyiv specifically to clear room for the American delegation's visit, citing an account from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Fox News adds that the envoys will fly on to Kyiv next, and that Trump believes there may be a good chance for a deal.
Witkoff has run this exact play before. On April 11, 2025 — under this same administration, seventeen months earlier — he sat with Putin to discuss settlement options and the outline of a Trump-Putin summit, per CBS News' reporting at the time. The war did not pause for that meeting either; it is still here to meet about.…
…(cont) The itinerary is older than Witkoff. In January 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, a trip France 24 covered as a show of support for Ukraine. That same week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine and that no option was off the table. Five weeks after Blinken landed, Russia invaded. By March 5, 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was the one in Moscow, sitting with Putin, the first world leader to do so after the invasion began, according to the Jerusalem Post and Axios. Three separate American administrations now — Trump's first term, Biden's, Trump's second — have run some version of this same shuttle. The staff changes. The shuttle doesn't.
The pauses are also selective. In September 2024, Ukraine flew drones into multiple Russian regions, Moscow included; Bryansk's governor counted at least 59 shot down, and Russia reported two dead in the capital strike, per Reuters. No delegation needed to be in the air for that one. And the last time a Trump-Putin meeting was actually booked, in November 2018, it survived less than an hour: Peskov said it was still on as Air Force One flew toward Argentina, and Trump tweeted it off before landing, citing Russia's failure to return Ukrainian ships and sailors — after telling reporters, less than sixty minutes earlier, that he'd "probably" meet Putin and that it was "a good time."
None of that history is on the exit paperwork. Russian men are filing to leave the country this week anyway, promise of no draft or not. The strikes will resume on schedule. The paperwork won't wait to find out.
“They pause the bombs long enough for a photo with Kushner, then it's back to business once the plane's wheels-up — that's not diplomacy, that's a scheduling courtesy for the cameras. The guy actually getting called up doesn't wait around for a communiqué, he's already at the visa window with cash in his hand, because he's watched this same shuttle land and take off since before his kid was born.”
“Look, this is real leadership — the president trusts his own son-in-law to close a deal no career diplomat could touch, and that kind of personal relationship is exactly the strength here... which, hold on, is also the nepotism thing everybody keeps writing about, forget I said that part. The point stands: a 72-hour pause is measurable progress, history just hasn't caught up yet with how much progress a pause actually is.”
The receipts
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to pause strikes on each other's capitals while U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner hold talks to revive peace efforts.
Two U.S. envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, arrived in Moscow on Saturday as part of an effort to restart negotiations between Russia and Ukraine after a monthslong stall. Russian leader Vladimir Putin authorized a 72-hour pause on strikes against Kyiv to facilitate the U.S.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have landed in Moscow for peace talks before heading to Kyiv, as Trump says there may be a good chance for a deal.
· The U.S. president's special envoy Steve Witkoff meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss settlement options for the Russo-Ukrainian war and a potential meeting between Donald Trump and from the morgue, 11 Apr 2025
· Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the invasion as well as a potential ceasefire with Ukraine. Bennett is the first world leader to from the morgue, 5 Mar 2022
· Ukraine launches drone attacks on multiple Oblasts of Russia, including Moscow, prompting all flights to be suspended at Vnukovo International Airport and Moscow Domodedovo Airport. Bryansk Governor A from the morgue, 10 Sep 2024
· After Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the summit is still on, while flying to Argentina, P from the morgue, 29 Nov 2018
· US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Kyiv, Ukraine, in a show of support for Ukraine. During a one-day visit, Blinken will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. White House Pres from the morgue, 19 Jan 2022
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.