Ukraine's armed forces have been ordered to observe a period of quiet along the line of contact from 00:00 on September 5 until 23:59 on September 8, 2026.
According to the outlet Ukrainska Pravda, the order is linked to an upcoming visit to Moscow and Kyiv by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier promised that Kyiv would not strike Moscow while the American envoys were in the region. He said there would be no air strikes from the Ukrainian side, but added that Russia needed to mirror this by ensuring quiet without carrying out its own air strikes.
Witkoff has served as Trump's special envoy for a range of international negotiations, while Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has also taken on informal diplomatic roles for the administration. Both men have made previous trips to Moscow as part of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump says envoys carry a proposal to end the war
Trump said Witkoff and Kushner would present proposals to stop the conflict in Ukraine during their trip to Moscow, though he stressed the plan itself was not new. He said the pair were bringing a proposal to end the war.
The US president also said there were good chances of ending the conflict in Ukraine and described Witkoff and Kushner as excellent negotiators.
Axios had previously reported that representatives of the White House planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the goal of the Witkoff and Kushner trip to Moscow and Kyiv was to hold talks aimed at ending the Ukrainian conflict.
Zelensky's expectations for the visit
Zelensky said Kyiv was hoping for a substantive visit from Trump's special representatives. He said the goal was a maximally constructive and substantive visit and negotiations with the American side, adding that real options needed to be found to bring the war toward an end.
The Ukrainian leader also said he believed Witkoff and Kushner trusted the Russian president. He said the White House representatives had spent too much time with Putin, which he said was the reason for their trust in him, calling this a problem.
Zelensky expressed hope that Trump's envoys would be active in the near term, though he gave no further details. He said he remained in constant contact with the US president's team.
Putin and the Kremlin respond
Putin said Trump's special envoy and the US president's son-in-law were always welcome guests in Russia, adding that Moscow found it comfortable to work with both American representatives, who are close to the White House.
Alexander Asafov, a political scientist and director of the laboratory of new technologies at the Expert Institute for Social Research, said the arrival of the American negotiators could be connected to new proposals for settling the Ukrainian crisis. He noted that the Kushner and Witkoff trip to Russia had been discussed many times before but repeatedly postponed, and suggested new circumstances or progress may have emerged on the issue.
He said there may be some progress, caused in part by the visit of the CIA director to Moscow, though the agenda and goals of the trip could be arbitrary. He added that Ukraine would certainly be at the center of the discussions, and that the Middle East might also come up.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Washington could demand that Kyiv halt its attacks on Russia ahead of the expected visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Moscow. He also said Russia did not intend to hold direct negotiations with Kyiv.
Peskov added that the Kremlin would provide information about the contacts with Witkoff and Kushner once they had taken place.
