Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 72-hour pause in strikes on Kyiv, the Kremlin said Saturday, as U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow to try to revive a stalled push to end Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia's Tass news agency: "Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today." He said the decision was tied to preparations for Witkoff and Kushner's planned visit to the Ukrainian capital, which Kyiv has said will take place on Sunday.

The envoys' trip comes as both sides escalate aerial attacks, some four and a half years after the Kremlin's invasion of its neighbour. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukraine would halt airstrikes during the envoys' visit and urged Moscow to do the same.

Washington's push to end the fighting, now in its fifth year, has lost momentum as U.S. attention has been focused for the last six months on its war with Iran. The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was in January, when they met Putin in the Kremlin. They have never previously visited Kyiv.

The envoys were met at the airport by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Tass reported. Dmitriev shared photos of him meeting the U.S. delegation as they disembarked, alongside the caption, "Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers."

Escalation Continues Despite Pause

With peace efforts stalled, Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv and other cities with relentless bombardments recently stretching into daylight hours, taking advantage of Ukraine's shortage of air defensive systems. On Friday, a Russian drone hit one of the most important government buildings in Kyiv — the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service, known as the SBU, which is one of the agencies involved in carrying out deep-strike operations inside Russia.

Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out overnight strikes on Kyiv and Boryspil international airports and linked the attack to the planned U.S. visit. He was quoted as saying: "Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine."

Russian attacks killed five people and wounded five more at an industrial facility in Ukraine's southern Dnipropetrovsk region, local military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha said. Russia's Ministry of Defense said it had carried out strikes on two metallurgical plants in the region, describing them as "major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine's military production."

Two people were wounded in an overnight Russian attack on Ukraine's Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration. Russian forces also repeatedly struck a shopping center in the southern Mykolaiv region with drones overnight, damaging retail premises and sparking fires, Ukraine's state emergency services said. A 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were hurt. Emergency crews responding to the incident were repeatedly forced to withdraw to safety because of the threat of further strikes, returning whenever conditions allowed.

Russia launched ballistic missiles from its Rostov and Voronezh regions and deployed 167 attack drones overnight, Ukraine's air force said. The drones included Shahed-type aircraft — around half of them jet-powered — as well as Geran and decoy drones. Ukraine's air force said Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones.

Ukrainian attacks wounded three people, including a 14-year-old girl, in Russia's border region of Belgorod, local officials said. Russia's Ministry of Defense said that its forces had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight.