Ukraine Orders Three-Day Ceasefire as Trump Envoys Witkoff and Kushner Head to Moscow and Kyiv with Peace Plan

Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing sources in several military brigades and a senior security official, that Ukraine's Defense Forces were ordered to observe a "silence regime" along the front from midnight on September 5 through 23:59 on September 8 12. Zelensky said Ukraine would ensure "normal functioning of Russian airspace" during the period and would conduct no airstrikes, calling on Russia to reciprocate, as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner headed to Moscow on September 5 to meet Putin and to Kyiv on September 6 to meet Zelensky 234. No Russian agreement to reciprocate had been reached, and Kyiv Independent and NV noted the order originated solely from the Ukrainian side; an air raid alert sounded in Kyiv at 00:00 on September 5 and Russia struck Dnipro with ballistic missiles shortly after the pause began 256. Ukraine's General Staff (Main Communications Directorate) subsequently disputed that any actual "silence regime" took effect, stating a ceasefire "cannot be unilateral or asymmetrical" without endangering troops and that Defense Forces continued full-scope combat operations as planned. Some Donetsk and Kharkiv brigade commands denied receiving any stand-down order, while only the "North" Territorial Defense Forces reportedly complied; implementation on the ground was inconsistent.