At least five people were dead in Kyiv by the afternoon of September 8, 2026, after Russia ended a three-day pause in strikes on the capital. The pause had been agreed for the visit of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. It lasted only until they left.
A weekend of diplomacy
The envoys began on Saturday with three hours at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin, followed by dinner, according to a Kremlin briefing. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks “useful” and said the Americans had “prepared seriously for this trip.” A White House official said the two sides had “discussed substantive plans for next steps.”
On Sunday the pair reached Kyiv, their first visit to the city since the war began. They toured St. Sophia’s Cathedral, whose windows were damaged in a recent Russian strike, and held two rounds of talks with Ukrainian officials. A third round followed with representatives of the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said.
No breakthrough came out of it. Witkoff said he was “confident that there’ll be a good resolution here.” Kushner said the team wanted to return to the three-way format between the US, Russia and Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said “several new ideas” had been discussed but gave no detail. He also called the shortage of air defense interceptors Ukraine’s “weak spot.”
The truce was narrow. It covered only Kyiv and Moscow, and Russia kept up its bombardment elsewhere. In the night into Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force counted 108 Shahed-type drones, and at least three people died in strikes that hit infrastructure in the Kyiv region.
The strike on Kyiv
The new barrage came overnight into Tuesday. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired 166 drones, 32 cruise missiles and an unspecified number of anti-ship and ballistic missiles. Ukrainian forces downed 142 drones, 31 cruise missiles and two ballistic missiles. Kyiv and Odesa took most of the fire, and impacts were recorded in 29 locations.
Zelensky said the attack was “complex” and designed to cause as much damage as possible. Two people had died by his first count, with ten injured. Mayor Vitali Klitschko later reported a third death, and then two more in a drone strike in the Solomianskyi district, which brought the day’s toll to five. A drone also hit the building housing the We Are Ukraine television channel while it was on air, partially destroying it and injuring at least five people, Zelensky said. The Kyiv Independent reported damage to residential buildings, a school and warehouses.
Russia’s Defense Ministry described a “massive strike” on defense industrial facilities, military transport and logistics hubs, and port facilities in Odesa.
Positions unchanged
Witkoff wrote on X that “substantive progress was made, including movement on scheduling additional trilateral talks.” Kremlin officials also called the visit productive. Yet Putin gave no sign of easing his demands, which include Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donbas, limits on its armed forces and permanent exclusion from NATO, according to ABC News.
Elina Beketova, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Newsweek the barrage showed that “Moscow continues to believe it can use military force without facing consequences significant enough to change its behavior.” Diplomacy matters, she said, but “diplomacy alone is unlikely to stop Russian attacks.”
Sources
- Witkoff confident of 'good resolution' after Kyiv meeting, as US pushes for trilateral talks with Russia | CNN
- 'Complex' Russian attacks kill 5 in Kyiv after US peace talks visit, officials say | ABC News
- Russia launches large attack on Kyiv hours after Kushner, Witkoff leave | Newsweek
