MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for a peace deal on Ukraine as Trump urged Moscow to “get moving.”
This is Witkoff’s third meeting with Putin this year, during which the US has failed to convince Russia of a complete ceasefire with Ukraine.
Witkoff has become a key figure in the rapprochement between Moscow and Washington.
However, the talks took place amid a deadlock in US-Russia negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire as a step toward a potential peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Disagreements over the terms for a complete halt in hostilities have caused the dialogue to stall.
President Trump, showing signs of frustration, has warned that he may impose secondary sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil if he believes Moscow is delaying progress on a Ukraine deal.
“Russia has to get moving. Too many people (are) DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war — A war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social:
Putin has expressed his readiness for a full ceasefire in principle, but has said that many crucial conditions have yet to be agreed about how it would work and has said that what he calls the root causes of the war have yet to be addressed.
Specifically, he has stated that Ukraine should not join NATO, that its military should be downsised, and that Russia should be granted full control over the four Ukrainian regions it claims, despite not having complete control over any of them.
With Moscow currently occupying just under 20 percent of Ukraine and Russian forces making continued gains on the battlefield, the Kremlin believes it holds a strong negotiating position and expects Ukraine to make concessions.
Putin and Trump have spoken by phone but have not yet met in person since Trump began his second four-year term in the White House this January.
Witkoff, who visited a synagogue in St. Petersburg earlier on Friday, is expected to arrive in Oman on Saturday for talks with Iran over its nuclear programme.
US and Russian officials reported making progress during Thursday’s talks in Istanbul aimed at normalising the operations of their diplomatic missions, as both sides take steps toward rebuilding relations.
