Witkoff and Kushner's Kyiv visit goes ahead as Russia hits Kyiv's own airports overnight, and the Kremlin announces a 3-day pause on Kyiv strikes starting tonight

What happened

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's planned Kyiv leg, reported in doubt on Friday, went forward: the envoys arrived in Moscow on Saturday 09-05 for talks with Putin, and are still scheduled to fly to Kyiv on Sunday 09-06 to meet Zelensky, what would be their first-ever visit to Ukraine's capital. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Putin has instructed no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, "starting at midnight tonight" (i.e. the night of 09-05→06) — explicitly "connected with the preparation for and holding of meetings involving the Americans in Kyiv." That pause has not yet taken effect as of this writing; it covers tonight forward, not the night just past. (Kyiv Post, UNN, quoting Peskov, CNN)
Overnight into 09-05, before any pause took effect, Russia struck Kyiv's own airports directly for what Zelensky called the first time in a long while, in a night Ukraine had unilaterally offered a ceasefire ahead of the envoys' visit and Russia rejected by continuing to bomb. Zelensky said the strikes on Kyiv International (Zhulyany) and Boryspil International airports were "deliberate... Russian-Iranian Shaheds in response to American diplomacy," tying the target choice to discussion of which airport the US envoys might land at. The wider overnight barrage used ballistic missiles and 167 drones across 23 locations nationwide, killing at least 7 (5 in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's Kamianske, including a body recovered from rubble the next day bringing that local toll to 5; 2 in Kherson Oblast) and injuring at least 51. Ukraine's proposed 09-05/09-08 halt to hostilities was not matched by Moscow. (Kyiv Independent — Boryspil/Zhulyany strikes, Kyiv Independent — casualty breakdown, Kyiv Independent — Kamianske/Dnipropetrovsk toll)
A localized ceasefire brokered by the IAEA took effect on Saturday 09-05 around the damaged 330-kilovolt Ferosplavna-1 line so that Ukrainian technicians could begin repairs after demining — the seventh such truce of the war — at a Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that has had no external power since 08-20 and has been cooling six reactors and its spent-fuel pools on emergency diesel generators since. Director General Grossi said the plant is running low on diesel and faces a possible station blackout within days unless off-site power is restored or fuel can be trucked through an active war zone; an IAEA team is monitoring the repair, and Grossi said both sides had engaged constructively. The same day the Kremlin announced its three-day pause on Kyiv strikes, a second, narrower ceasefire was already in force 500 kilometres to the south-east — and this thread had not recorded the sixteen-day outage that made it necessary. (Ukrinform, carrying the IAEA statement, IAEA Update 365)

Sources 8

Kyiv Post kyivpost.com solid 0.694
UNN, quoting Peskov unn.ua unrated
CNN cnn.com solid 0.658 generally reliable
Kyiv Independent — Boryspil/Zhulyany strikes kyivindependent.com solid 0.616
Kyiv Independent — casualty breakdown kyivindependent.com solid 0.616
Kyiv Independent — Kamianske/Dnipropetrovsk toll kyivindependent.com solid 0.616
Ukrinform, carrying the IAEA statement ukrinform.net unrated
IAEA Update 365 iaea.org unrated

Credibility ratings combine two public datasets: Lin et al. 2023, PNAS Nexus 2(9):pgad286 (CC BY 4.0) for the domain-quality score, and Wikipedia's perennial-sources list (CC BY-SA 4.0) for the reliability tier. A rating describes an outlet's general record, never this particular article. Unrated means absent from those datasets — not a judgement.

The Projection

Witkoff and Kushner's Kyiv visit goes ahead as Russia hits Kyiv's own airports overnight, and the Kremlin announces a 3-day pause on Kyiv strikes starting tonight

What happened

Sources 8

The wider story