Trump envoy Witkoff meets with Putin

2025-08-06 14:53:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia's Vladimir Putin have met in the Kremlin as Donald Trump's deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine approaches.

The talks lasted three hours, Russian media report, after Witkoff arrived in Russia early Wednesday.

The US president has said Russia could face severe sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all those who trade with it if it does not take steps to end its "terrible war" with Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has warned that Russia will only take serious steps towards peace if it starts running out of money. He welcomed the threat of tougher US sanctions and tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil.

In images shared by Russian media, the two men - who have met several times before - were seen smiling and shaking hands in a gilded hall.

Expectations for a resolution by Friday are dim, and Russia has continued its large-scale air strikes on Ukraine despite Trump's threats of sanctions.

Before taking office in January, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. He failed and has since grown impatient with the lack of tangible progress, with his rhetoric toward Russia escalating.

"We thought we had resolved [the war] a few times, and then President Putin comes out and starts launching missiles at some city like Kiev and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or wherever," he said last month.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Moscow's military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kiev and its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly rejected Kiev's requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US administration approved $200 million in additional military sales to Ukraine on Tuesday following a phone call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defense cooperation and drone production.

Ukraine has used drones to strike Russian refineries and energy facilities, while Moscow has focused its airstrikes on Ukrainian cities.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said the death toll from an attack on the city last week had risen to 32, after one man died from his wounds. The attack was the deadliest in Kyiv since the start of the occupation.

Ukrainian authorities reported on Wednesday that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central Zaporizhia region left two dead and 12 injured.

"There is no military meaning in this attack. It is just cruelty to scare people," Zelensky said./ CNA, translated by BBC