US President Donald Trump has warned that he would impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire.
United States President Donald Trump has said that his special envoy Steve Witkoff held a “highly productive meeting” with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, days before the White House’s deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face punitive economic sanctions.
“Great progress was made!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, adding that he had briefed some European allies afterwards.
“Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” he wrote.
Witkoff met Putin for about three hours earlier in the day in an attempt to seek a breakthrough in the more than three-year war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two sides had exchanged “signals” on the Ukraine issue and discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but declined to give more details.
Russian presidential special representative Kirill Dmitriev, who earlier greeted Witkoff and walked with him in a park, posted on social media: “Dialogue will prevail.”
A White House official who spoke to the Associated Press news agency on the condition of anonymity said the meeting had gone well and that Russia was eager to continue engaging with the US. But the official also said the US is still expected to impose secondary sanctions against Russia on Friday, after a 10-day deadline imposed by Trump expires.
Shortly after the meeting, Trump released an executive order imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on goods from India, for importing Russian oil. The announcement stated that the “actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed Witkoff’s visit with Trump Wednesday. “Ukraine will definitely defend its independence. We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started,” Zelenskyy said on X, confirming that European leaders had also joined the call with Trump.
“It seems that Russia is now more inclined to a ceasefire. The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the US,” Zelenskyy added in his nightly address.
When reporters asked Trump on Monday what Witkoff’s message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied, “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
Witkoff, a real estate billionaire, has had several long meetings with Putin. He had no diplomatic experience before joining Trump’s team in January, and critics have portrayed him as ill-equipped for such tasks.
Three previous rounds of peace talks in Turkiye’s Istanbul in an attempt to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine have failed to make headway.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said on Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were unchanged. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support, including seeking NATO membership.
Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Zelenskyy last week urged his allies to push for “regime change” in Moscow.
Russia continues attacks
In Ukraine overnight, Russian forces hit a recreational centre in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhia region, killing two people and injuring 12, including two children, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Wednesday.
Russian forces launched at least four strikes on the area and initially attacked with powerful glide bombs.
“There is zero military sense in this strike. Only cruelty to intimidate,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram.
Russia also struck the Ukrainian power grid and heating gas facilities in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, which are used in a scheme to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US and Azerbaijan, undermining preparations for winter, Ukrainian officials said.
“This was a deliberate blow to our preparations for the heating season, absolutely cynical, like every Russian blow to the energy sector,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.