Putin meets US envoy Witkoff ahead of Trump’s sanctions deadline

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, just two days before a deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Russia to halt its military campaign in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he could end the conflict within 24 hours of returning to office, has given the Kremlin until Friday to show progress toward peace or risk sweeping penalties.

However, efforts to broker a ceasefire have stalled. Three rounds of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have so far failed to yield results, even as Moscow intensifies its drone and missile strikes and expands its ground offensive into Ukrainian territory.

Footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin greeting Witkoff with a handshake at the Kremlin, but no further details of the discussions were made public.

Ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Washington to ramp up pressure on Moscow. “It is very important to strengthen all the levers in the arsenal of the United States, Europe, and the G7 so that a ceasefire truly comes into effect immediately,” Zelensky said in a social media post, welcoming Witkoff’s arrival in Moscow.

Sanctions looming

While the White House has not specified what sanctions may be imposed, Trump has floated the idea of imposing “secondary tariffs” on Russia’s key trading partners, including China and India—a move that could significantly disrupt global trade.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he would withhold any decision until after the outcome of the Moscow talks. “We’re going to see what happens. We’ll make that determination at that time,” he said.

The Kremlin, without directly naming Trump, dismissed the tariff threats as “illegitimate” on Tuesday, warning against punitive measures that would target third-party nations.

Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, has devastated much of the country, killed tens of thousands, and displaced millions. Moscow continues to demand that Kyiv surrender more territory and abandon its Western alliances as conditions for peace—demands Ukraine has flatly rejected.

Kyiv, for its part, is pushing for an immediate ceasefire and has urged Western allies to take stronger action, including supporting what Zelensky described last week as “regime change” in Moscow.

Rising nuclear tensions

Trump has recently sharpened his rhetoric against Putin, expressing growing frustration over Russia’s continued aggression. In July, Russia launched a record number of drone strikes on Ukraine, and ground operations have surged into regions that Moscow had not previously claimed to annex.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities reported that at least two people were killed and 10 others injured in overnight Russian shelling of a holiday camp in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

When asked earlier this week what message Witkoff would deliver to Putin and whether there was still a path to avoid sanctions, Trump said bluntly: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the meeting with Witkoff as “important, substantial and helpful,” saying Moscow appreciated US efforts to seek a resolution to the conflict.

Still, tensions remain high. Trump revealed on Monday that he had ordered the deployment of two US nuclear submarines “to the region” in response to an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. He did not clarify whether the vessels were nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed, nor did he disclose their exact locations, which are classified.

Moscow reacted cautiously to the announcement, urging restraint. In a potentially escalatory move, Russia later said it was abandoning a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles, hinting it may deploy such weapons in response to alleged US actions near Russian borders.