Putin accepts not to attack Kyiv for three days for the visit of the American emissaries

MoscowAfter more than half a year with peace talks stalled due to the conflict in the Middle East, Donald Trump is seeking to relaunch negotiations to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. His envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, landed this Saturday in Moscow, where they will meet with Vladimir Putin, and the next day they will be in Kyiv for the first time to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The visit is taking place amidst an escalation of long-range cross-bombardments and with the Russian president less willing than ever to make concessions. Despite this, both sides have ultimately accepted a three-day ceasefire over the two capitals to ensure the safety of the American diplomats.

The truce, which is usually considered a gesture of goodwill, has been marked by Putin's resistance. On Friday, Zelenskyy announced that he would immediately stop attacks both at the front and in the rear, but Russia did not agree and wanted to set the timing and conditions. During the early hours of Saturday, the Russian army continued its bombardments and killed four people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Furthermore, it has also attacked the airports in the vicinity of Kyiv, in an attempt to make it clear that it is not safe for the White House envoys to fly to the Ukrainian capital. Zelenskyy has described them as “demonstrative” and “deliberate” acts. “Clearly, these Russian attacks on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility that the American side will use an aircraft to travel to Ukraine. Russian-Iranian Shaheds in response to American diplomacy,” he wrote.

It was not until the afternoon that the Kremlin complied with the ceasefire, but it limited it to Kyiv and Moscow, and refused to stop the offensive on the front line. In this way, the Russian government intends to make it clear to the negotiators that they are the ones holding the reins and that it is Ukraine that is desperately trying to achieve a pause in the fighting. In addition to targeting Kyiv's airports, which had not been targets of Russian drones for some time, the day before the Russian army also attacked the office of the head of Ukrainian intelligence in the historic center of the city, culminating more than a week of incessant attacks against the capital.

Low expectations

Putin, as in Witkoff's seven previous visits, has once again made his guests wait. Trump's emissaries landed at noon in Moscow and the Russian president filled his schedule with events until meeting with them. Presidential adviser Kirill Dmitriev, who has the best relationship with them, met them at the airport and took them to lunch at a restaurant in the city center where one could read on the windows "Everything for victory!". The establishment is owned by a pro-Putin rapper who also took over the business of the American company Starbucks when it left Russia in 2022.

The expectations for this double visit are very low and the obstacles that have stalled any peace agreement until now have not vanished. The Russian president is convinced that his troops will soon be able to conquer the Donbas, despite the evidence that their advances are very slow. The Kremlin does not want to negotiate anything while Zelensky does not order his men to abandon the last bastions of this region. And, although he no longer trusts that Washington can force him to take this step, Russian diplomacy insists that the American administration "must take into account the realities on the ground, where the situation is changing to the detriment of Kyiv". On the other hand, the Ukrainian president maintains that this condition is an intolerable starting point and insists on the demand for a ceasefire prior to any discussion.

Trump claimed before the trip that Witkoff and Kushner would bring to Moscow and Kyiv an "idea for peace". However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov clarified this Saturday that it was not a new proposal. The formulas proposed so far have not worked and, every time the White House has tried to spur mediation with new plans, it has run into the inflexibility of a Putin for whom this war is his legacy and a Zelensky who does not want to go down in history as the president who surrendered Ukraine.