US Envoys Travel to Moscow in New Push for Peace Between Russia and Ukraine

Two American diplomats, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, flew to Moscow on Saturday to try to restart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Russian state news reported their arrival at the airport, where they were met by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. The trip came even as both countries kept up heavy air attacks on each other. The war between Russia and Ukraine has now been going on for almost five years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would stop airstrikes while the American envoys were in Moscow and asked Russia to do the same. Russia did not publicly respond to that offer. The last time Witkoff and Kushner visited Moscow was in January, when they met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. They have never traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, but Zelenskyy said he was expecting them there on Sunday.

Zelenskyy said Russian strikes on two major airports — Kyiv and Boryspil — happened overnight and were linked to the planned U.S. visit. He believed the attacks were Russia's reaction to talk of an American plane flying into Ukraine. He warned that Ukraine would adjust its own operations in Russian airspace the following week. He also made clear that Ukraine would not threaten the diplomats or the peace process.

With peace talks stalled, Russia has been striking Ukrainian cities harder and more often, sometimes even during daylight hours. Ukraine does not have enough air defense systems to stop all the incoming attacks. On Friday, a Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service — one of the country's most important government buildings. Ukraine has also been striking targets inside Russia, hitting military bases, oil refineries, and warehouses to hurt Russia's war effort.

In Ukraine's southern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian attacks killed five workers at an industrial site and wounded five more. A local official said the victims were ordinary people doing everyday jobs. "A locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist. People of peaceful professions. They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives," the official said. Russia's Defense Ministry called the sites military suppliers and said the strikes were justified.

Overnight attacks also damaged a nine-story apartment building in the Kyiv region and hit a shopping center in the Mykolaiv region, wounding a 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl. Emergency crews had to keep retreating from the shopping center scene because more strikes kept coming. Russia launched 167 attack drones and ballistic missiles overnight, according to Ukraine's air force. Ukrainian defenses shot down or disabled 128 of the drones. Russia said it shot down 53 Ukrainian drones, and three people — including a 14-year-old girl — were wounded in Russia's border region of Belgorod.