At least 5 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as U.S. envoys visit Moscow, September 5

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, arrived in Moscow on Saturday, September 5, 2026, for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told reporters on Friday that Witkoff and Kushner were "bringing with them a proposal to end the war," though he did not elaborate on its contents. According to Russian state news agency TASS, the envoys were scheduled to be in Moscow on Saturday and Sunday, marking their first visit since January. On the same day, Russian military forces attacked the city of Kamianske in southeastern Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, killing five people and injuring five others, according to Governor Oleksandr Hanzha. Russian state media reported that President Vladimir Putin had ordered a halt to strikes on Kyiv for three days. Ukraine's army was ordered to cease fire for three days starting at midnight on Saturday, with the break scheduled to last until 23:59 on September 8, according to Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram that he had spoken briefly with Witkoff and Kushner ahead of their expected arrival in Kyiv on Sunday, marking the envoys' first visit to Ukraine. The ceasefire order did not immediately halt Russian attacks. Interfax Ukraine reported that Russian strikes continued overnight despite the announced pause. Ukraine's Armed Forces clarified that they did not order this temporary ceasefire on the front lines, as Russia had not stopped its aggression. People's Deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday night: "The military confirms that a ceasefire order has been received. The ceasefire is happening everywhere. On the ground, in the air, and at sea," though subsequent reporting indicated that claim was not borne out by events. President Zelenskyy said: "The Russians struck a civilian enterprise in Kamianske, in the Dnipro region. There were also demonstrative Russian strikes on our airports overnight, in Kyiv and Boryspil." Zelenskyy stated: "Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine and land at Kyiv Airport or Boryspil Airport." He said: "We have taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace." In the Odesa region, three people were injured, including a 17-year-old, in overnight Russian attacks, according to the press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. In Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, a 17-year-old was injured in an attack by Russian drones on a shopping centre. In the Kyiv region, two women were injured and hospitalised after a Russian strike on a nine-storey residential building in Boryspil, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's regional military administration. Civilian deaths in Ukraine have sharply increased over the past few months as Russia is using jet-powered drones, which fly at about half the speed of a passenger jet and are more difficult to intercept than propeller-powered drones, per Al Jazeera reporting. Russia launched ballistic missiles from its Rostov and Voronezh regions and deployed 167 attack drones overnight, according to Ukraine's air force. The drones included Shahed-type aircraft, around half of them jet-powered, as well as Geran and decoy drones. Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 128 drones overnight, according to Ukraine's air force. According to Russian state news agency TASS, Witkoff and Kushner were met at the airport by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Video on Russian state media shows the envoys being greeted by Putin. The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner was in January, when they met Putin in the Kremlin, per NPR reporting. According to Axios, cited by BBC, the U.S. envoys would separately meet both Putin and Zelenskyy. Witkoff and Kushner have never visited Kyiv before, but Zelenskyy said he was expecting them in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, marking their first visit to the country since Trump returned to power. It is not clear how the envoys will travel from Moscow to Kyiv. Ukraine's airspace has been closed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy said on Friday he would guarantee the safety of Russian airspace during the envoys' visit and called for Russia to do the same for Ukraine. Washington's push to end the Ukraine fighting, now in its fifth year, has lost momentum as U.S. attention has been focused for the last six months on its war with Iran, per NPR reporting. A 60-day ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran formally expired last month, with little sign of a further diplomatic settlement on the horizon. On Friday, on the eve of the Moscow talks, Trump told reporters that a peace deal in the more than four-year conflict has remained elusive due to what he described as a "personality problem" between the warring sides. Trump said: "President Zelenskyy and President Putin truly hate each other. They have serious hate, and it's getting in the way." With peace efforts stalled, Russia intensified its attacks on Kyiv and other cities with relentless bombardments recently stretching into daylight hours, taking advantage of Ukraine's shortage of air defensive systems, per NPR. On Friday, a Russian drone hit one of the most important government buildings in Kyiv, the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service, known as the SBU, which is one of the agencies involved in carrying out deep-strike operations inside Russia. A separate local ceasefire was reportedly brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency to enable repairs for the restoration of external power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Russian-controlled plant has been without external power since August 20 and has relied on emergency diesel generators to cool its vital safety systems. Russian military forces intercepted and destroyed 53 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight, including several over the Moscow region, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence on Saturday. Over recent months, Ukraine has developed long-range drones that have repeatedly targeted Russia's oil sector, hoping to dent the economy and the warehouses of online retailers to make the Russian public feel the effects of war, per Al Jazeera reporting. Ukrainian attacks wounded three people, including a 14-year-old girl, in Russia's border region of Belgorod, according to local officials. Russia's Ministry of Defense said it had carried out strikes on two metallurgical plants in the Dnipropetrovsk region, describing them as "major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine's military production." A 62-year-old man was wounded and several homes and an apartment building were damaged in a separate attack on the Nikopol district, according to NPR reporting. The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as troops have struggled to make progress along the 1,250-kilometer front line, and Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones, with the recurring wail of air-raid sirens becoming part of daily life in Kyiv.