President Donald Trump‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Russia this week for one last face-to-face meeting before the president’s shortened 10-day window for a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war expires.
Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Wednesday or Thursday, Trump told reporters on Sunday. Russian state media reported on Monday that the visit will take place on Wednesday.
Last month, Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire deal and warned that, if a deal wasn’t reached, he would face heavy sanctions, including secondary sanctions on Russia’s allies, and tariffs.
With Russian bombardments continuing daily, Trump expedited that deadline last week to 10 days, which pushed the deadline to this Friday.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Monday that they would “not rule out the possibility” of a Putin-Witkoff meeting this week.
This comes after U.S. and Russian officials met last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last Thursday. Rubio said they “had a whole conversation … not with Putin but with some of Putin’s top people.”
Trump began his presidency believing that he could negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, which has now gone on for 3 and 1/2 years. After six months of fruitless diplomatic attempts, the Kremlin has rebuffed those efforts, despite the current administration making overtures to Russia that the Biden administration did not.
Last month, Russian and Ukrainian leaders met in Istanbul but made little headway in coming to an agreement to end the war.
Even as Trump threatens Russia with sanctions and tariffs, he has downplayed the likelihood that those measures will convince Putin to end the war.
“I don’t know if it’s going to affect Russia, but he wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going,” Trump said of Putin last week. “But we’re going to put on tariffs and the various things you put on. It may or may not affect them. But it could.”
Last week, Trump said he ordered the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines following inflammatory remarks from former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, though Medvedev is not a particularly “relevant player in Russian politics,” Rubio said.
Russia has received military assistance from Iran and North Korea, primarily, though other countries, such as China and India, have aided Russia’s economy, helping it evade current sanctions.
Over the weekend, Stephen Miller, a senior Trump administration official, accused India of “financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” saying, “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil.”
Indian officials said they had not made any changes to slow their purchase of Russian oil.
While U.S. officials dating back to the previous administration have called out Beijing for its indirect assistance to Russia, India has largely avoided direct scrutiny from the U.S.
That appears to have changed recently, with Trump announcing on Monday, “India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.”
TRUMP ORDERS TWO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES REPOSITIONED AFTER RUSSIAN THREATS
The Trump administration is also in the process of establishing new ways to arm Ukraine militarily without footing the bill. In effect, European countries will give weapons to Ukraine and purchase replacement weapons from the U.S.
Ukraine’s primary request is for air defense systems that can shoot down missiles fired from Russia into Ukrainian cities. Attack drones have also become a key weapon in the conflict, reshaping how militaries across the world are preparing for future conflicts.