At least 5 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as US envoys visit Moscow

Russia has attacked the city of Kamianske in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing five people and injuring five others, according to Governor Oleksandr Hanzha.

The attack on Saturday came as United States special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, before they head to Kyiv on Sunday with a proposal to “end the war”.

Putin described as “difficult” the situation that he and the US envoys would have to address during the negotiations, according to video published on the Kremlin’s ⁠channel on the ⁠MAX messaging app.

In a message on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had spoken briefly with Witkoff and Kushner ahead of their expected arrival in Kyiv.

President Donald Trump suggested on Friday the US had a fresh concrete proposal aimed at ending the war, which is now in its fifth year. He did not, however, elaborate on what that proposal would be.

Putin earlier ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, starting on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pskov said.

This came hours after Ukraine’s army was also ordered to cease fire for three days starting at midnight on Saturday.

A separate local ceasefire was reportedly brokered ⁠by ⁠the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to enable ⁠repairs for the restoration of external power ⁠to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the agency said on Saturday. The Russian-controlled nuclear power plant, ‌located in Ukraine, has been without external power since August 20 and has relied on emergency diesel generators to cool its vital safety systems.

‘Break’ from fighting

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that the “break” for Ukrainian forces was scheduled to start at midnight on September 5 and last until 23:59 on September 8.

“The military confirms that a ceasefire order has been received. The ceasefire is happening everywhere. On the ground, in the air, and at sea,” People’s Deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday night.

However, this order did not stop Russian attacks from continuing in Ukraine overnight, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency. As a result, Ukraine’s Armed Forces clarified that they did not have to order this temporary ceasefire on the front lines, as Russia had not stopped its aggression.

“The Russians struck a civilian enterprise in Kamianske, in the Dnipro region,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday on X.

“There were also demonstrative Russian strikes on our airports overnight – in Kyiv and Boryspil… 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,” Zelenskyy added. “We have taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace.”

Apart from Kamianske, there were also reports of injuries from overnight Russian attacks in other parts of Ukraine. In the Odesa region, three people were injured, including a 17-year-old boy, the press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported on Facebook. In Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, a 17-year-old girl was injured in an attack by Russian drones on a shopping centre.

In the Kyiv region, two women were injured and hospitalised, according to the head of Kyiv’s regional military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, after a Russian strike on a nine-storey residential building in Boryspil.

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.

Meanwhile, Russian military forces intercepted and destroyed 53 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight, including several over the Moscow region, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced 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.

On Friday, 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.

“President Zelenskyy and President Putin truly hate each other,” Trump said. “They have serious hate, and it’s getting in the way.”

According to Russian state news agency TASS, Witkoff and Kushner will be in Moscow on Saturday and Sunday, their first visit since January.

Zelenskyy said the duo would be in Ukraine on Sunday, marking their first visit to the country since Trump returned to power.