Kyiv Under Attack Again: Russia Resumes Strikes After Three-Day Diplomatic Halt Ends

Russia resumed strikes on Kyiv late Monday after the expiration of a three-day halt in attacks that had been ordered to coincide with a visit to the Ukrainian and Russian capitals by US envoys, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had announced on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin ordered a 72-hour pause in strikes on Kyiv, telling Russia's TASS news agency that "no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today." The decision was tied to preparations for a visit to the Ukrainian capital by US President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, whose trip Kyiv had said would take place over the weekend.

Once the pause lapsed, Ukraine's emergency service reported renewed attacks, saying on Telegram that "Russians attacked Boryspil and Fastiv districts with drones." The Kyiv city military administration also declared an air raid alert in the capital due to the threat of drone attacks and urged residents to take shelter. Russia's state news agency TASS separately confirmed that the temporary halt in strikes had expired, effectively ending the brief window of calm over the Ukrainian capital that had coincided with the American delegation's presence in the region.

Witkoff and Kushner's trip marked their first-ever visit to Kyiv, following talks in Moscow with Putin over the weekend. The two envoys, key figures in the Trump administration's efforts to end the war, had previously met Putin in the Kremlin in January but had not travelled to the Ukrainian capital before this visit. They were met on arrival in Moscow by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, according to TASS, before holding talks with Putin at the Kremlin. Peskov had said ahead of the visit that there was "no talk of new ideas" for ending the conflict, tempering expectations even as the trip was billed as an attempt to revive a stalled diplomatic push. Witkoff later struck a more optimistic tone, touting progress in the discussions with both Ukraine and Russia and raising the prospect of reviving three-way peace talks aimed at ending the conflict.

Also Read: Missile Shortages Push Ukraine to Rely on Decades-Old Weapons

The brief halt in strikes followed a period of intensified aerial exchanges between the two sides. In the lead-up to the envoys' visit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had accused Russia of deliberately striking airports in Kyiv and Boryspil, suggesting the attacks were a response to discussions over whether the US delegation might fly directly into Ukraine. Zelensky had said Ukraine would halt its own airstrikes during the delegation's visit and called on Moscow to reciprocate, a step Russia appeared to take with Putin's announced pause. The reciprocal, if temporary, halt in hostilities was seen by some observers as a modest confidence-building gesture ahead of the envoys' meetings, even as both governments continued to trade accusations over responsibility for the war's continuation.

The diplomatic push comes as Washington's broader effort to broker an end to the war, now in its fifth year, has lost momentum in recent months, with US attention diverted in part toward its separate conflict with Iran. Since the full-scale invasion began, Russian strikes have repeatedly targeted Kyiv's energy infrastructure and other critical systems, with the capital having endured waves of drone and missile attacks that have left residents without power, heat or water at various points over the past several years. Ukraine, in turn, has carried out its own drone strikes into Russian territory, contributing to a cycle of escalation that successive rounds of US-brokered diplomacy have so far failed to break.

The resumption of strikes on Boryspil and Fastiv underscores the fragility of the current diplomatic track, even as both sides continue to engage with US-led mediation efforts. With aerial attacks from both Russia and Ukraine having intensified in recent months, the outcome of the Witkoff-Kushner visit — and whether it leads to a revival of formal three-way negotiations involving Washington, Moscow and Kyiv — is likely to shape the trajectory of the war in the weeks ahead. For now, residents of Kyiv and its surrounding districts remain under the same threat of drone and missile attacks that has defined much of the conflict, with no confirmed date yet for any follow-up round of talks.

Also Read: EAM Jaishankar Affirms India’s Readiness to Help End the Ongoing Russia-Ukraine Conflict