Russia resumes strikes on Kyiv as US diplomatic pause ends

Once again, the skies over Kyiv filled with ballistic missiles in the early hours of September 8th, 2026, killing two and wounding seven in a city that has grown wearily familiar with such nights. The strikes resumed almost immediately after American envoys Witkoff and Kushner departed the region, collapsing whatever fragile diplomatic space their presence had briefly opened. It is a pattern the world has watched repeat itself throughout this conflict: dialogue arrives, guns pause, diplomats leave, and the bombardment returns — each cycle deepening the question of whether negotiation can ever