Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Wednesday. Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP hide caption
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Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in the coming days, according to a top Kremlin aide.
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The meeting would mark the first summit between the leaders of the two countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
According to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, the Trump-Putin meeting could take place as soon as next week. A venue has been agreed upon but would be announced later, he said.
“At the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was essentially reached to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days, that is, a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump,” Ushakov said.
Ushakov said the idea for the summit was first proposed by White House envoy Steve Witkoff during three hours of talks with Putin on Wednesday aimed at negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
Ushakov also said Witkoff had suggested three-way talks that could include Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but indicated Moscow remained skeptical of the offer.
Russian markets and its ruble currency both rose amid the news. It comes a day before Trump’s deadline for Russia to end its war in Ukraine or face a raft of new sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy exports.
Putin’s meeting with Trump’s envoy
On Wednesday, when reporters asked Trump if he would meet with Putin and Zelenskyy, Trump said there was a “very good prospect” there would be a meeting “very soon.”
The remarks came after Witkoff reported progress in his talks with Putin in Russia.
Both Trump and the Kremlin gave positive signs after that meeting, which the Kremlin press team said lasted about three hours.
“My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”
The Kremlin released a video showing Putin greeting Witkoff with a warm handshake. Yuri Ushakov, a Russian presidential aide, was quoted by state media as calling the discussions “useful” and “constructive” and said the two sides exchanged “signals” on the “Ukraine issue.”
The meeting came ahead of a U.S.-imposed Friday deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire deal with Ukraine or face new economic penalties.
When answering reporters’ questions, Trump was circumspect about the prospects of ending more than three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “I’ve been disappointed before, with this one,” he said. And he declined to say the Witkoff meeting made a “breakthrough.”
Secondary sanctions that Trump threatened to impose on Russia’s trading partners if it failed to agree to end the war are still expected to be implemented on Friday, according to a senior administration official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
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Trump’s frustration
The news follows weeks in which the president has grown increasingly impatient with Putin over his failure to stop attacking Ukrainian cities, despite months of U.S.-led peace efforts.
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Russia launched its ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, following years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, leading to Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.
Trump had campaigned to return to office vowing he could leverage his personal relationship with Putin developed over his first term in office to end the war in “24 hours.” His administration made overtures to the Kremlin, voicing support for key Russian demands of Ukraine.
But after weeks of voicing his frustration over Russia’s deadly assaults on Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine, in mid-July Trump announced a policy shift. He said the U.S. would sell weapons to NATO allies in Europe, which would then send U.S. weapons to Ukraine.
He also warned that Russia had 50 days to end the war or face “severe” new economic penalties. He said this included “secondary tariffs” on countries buying Russian goods.
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Trump cuts deadline for Russia to reach peace deal with Ukraine
Trump cuts deadline for Russia to reach peace deal with Ukraine
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Last week, Trump moved the deadline up to Friday.
He has explained that the plan is to starve the Russian war machine of fuel revenue. But speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he questioned whether more economic penalties could push Russia to change course. “You know, they’re wily characters and they’re pretty good at avoiding sanctions,” Trump said.
Russia shrugs
Putin has largely avoided addressing Trump’s threats in public, only breaking his silence last week with a brief, veiled reference to the U.S. leader.
“All disappointments stem from inflated expectations, as the saying goes,” Putin told reporters last Friday following a visit to a monastery in northwest Russia.
“In order to solve the issue in a peaceful way,” Putin said, “we need deep conversations, and not in public, but in the calm quiet of the negotiating process.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov downplayed Trump’s threat to impose penalties by Friday. He said Moscow had “taken note” of the comments, but asserted that Russia’s economy had grown largely “immune” to Western pressure following more than three years of sanctions.
Trump warms to Ukraine
While President Trump has criticized Russia, his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has improved dramatically since they had an on-camera argument in the White House back in February.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday on social media that he had a “productive conversation” with Trump on the eve of Witkoff’s trip to Moscow.
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“Of course, we spoke about sanctions against Russia,” Zelenskyy said. “Their economy continues to decline, and that’s exactly why Moscow is so sensitive to this prospect and President Trump’s resolve.”
Zelenskyy also announced that the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark had agreed to buy a combined $1 billion in U.S. weapons and send them to Ukraine under the arrangement Trump announced last month.
The Netherlands said it will send American missiles and other parts for U.S. Patriot air defense systems already in Ukraine, valuing the assistance at more than $500 million. The Ukrainians say they urgently need additional missiles for the Patriot batteries to defend against escalating Russian airstrikes.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy confirmed he and other European leaders discussed the results of Witkoff’s Moscow trip on a 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 U.S.,” he said in his Wednesday night address.
Charles Maynes reported in Moscow. Greg Myre contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine. Franco Ordoñez contributed from Washington, D.C.
