President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin , as the Kremlin seeks to head off U.S. threats of crippling new sanctions over its war in Ukraine.
Trump has given Putin until Friday to reach a cease-fire with Kyiv, shortening a 50-day deadline he had earlier set. This week he reiterated plans to impose penalty levies on goods from countries buying Russian energy, namely India and China, if Moscow doesn’t show progress toward ending the war.
“We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said at a White House event on Tuesday.
Russia has been defiant in its response to Trump’s warnings, saying it won’t be swayed by ultimatums. But Witkoff’s visit to Moscow—his fifth this year—is seen by Russia as an important chance to deliver a message to the U.S. president and signal its willingness to at least keep talking with Kyiv.
Witkoff sat down with Putin on Wednesday after a meeting with Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev , who has been Moscow’s most vocal advocate for closer ties with the U.S. Witkoff has forged a close relationship with Dmitriev, who is an important conduit for Moscow’s messaging in the West.
Russian state media aired footage showing Witkoff walking through central Moscow with Dmitriev, who posted a photo to X showing him greeting Witkoff on the tarmac of a Moscow airport. The Kremlin later published a clip of Witkoff shaking hands with Putin, as Putin’s aides stood nearby. Putin’s meeting with Witkoff lasted more than two hours.
Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their positions over the war, with no tangible progress emerging from several meetings between the two sides in recent months. Russia has sought in its public statements to decouple the issue of Ukraine from the question of forging closer economic ties with the U.S.
Trump has suggested that any deals with Russia will be contingent on the war being stopped, but the Kremlin has been upbeat about the prospect of improving relations. They took a dive after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and plummeted further during the administration of former President Joe Biden , who sought to isolate Moscow and make it pay for the war.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it would take a long time for the effects of that period to be overcome. “Time is needed for efforts to move bilateral relations onto a normal trajectory,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov .
Russian officials have suggested that a concession from Moscow might involve a pause in aerial attacks against Ukraine, which have been a particular target of Trump’s indignation. Russia has sent regular waves of drones and missiles to attack Ukrainian cities. Twenty-eight people were killed in an attack in Kyiv last week. Moscow insists it only aims at military targets. Kyiv has responded with its own attacks inside Russia.
Hours before the high-level meetings took place in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia launched another attack on Ukraine, according to Kyiv. Authorities in southern Ukraine said that two people were killed and a dozen wounded after a Russian glide bomb struck a holiday resort in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said medics and first responders were working to help the wounded in Zaporizhzhia, and called for more pressure on Moscow to end the war. “There is zero military sense in this strike,” he said in a post on X. “Just cruelty aimed at instilling fear.”
Write to Matthew Luxmoore at matthew.luxmoore@wsj.com
