By Chris Summers
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday as Washington’s deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine approaches. Details have not yet emerged of what they discussed.
Trump said on July 14 that he would impose “severe tariffs” on Russia unless a deal on ending the conflict was reached within 50 days. On July 28, he shortened the deadline to “about 10 or 12 days,” meaning he wants peace efforts to make progress by Aug. 7-9.
Early on Wednesday morning, the TASS news agency posted footage on its Telegram channel of Witkoff going for a stroll through Zaryadye Park, close to the Kremlin, with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation.
Dmitriev has played a central role in the direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.
Three rounds of peace negotiations have been held in Turkey this year, the most recent round occurring on July 23. Talks have yet to result in any meaningful progress toward ending the conflict.
Putin said on Aug. 1 that he hoped the peace talks would continue. He added that Russia was making progress in the ongoing conflict, signaling no change in policy despite the looming U.S. sanctions deadline.
Ukraine has been gradually losing territory on the front line, but there is no sign of its defensive line completely collapsing, and Kyiv continues to mount drone attacks deep inside Russia, causing a fire at a railway station near Volgograd on Monday.
For months, Ukraine has been urging an immediate cease-fire, but Russia says it wants a lasting settlement, not a pause.
Putin Wants ‘Quiet’ Negotiations
On Aug. 1, Putin said, “In order to approach the issue peacefully, it is necessary to conduct detailed conversations. And not in public, but this must be done calmly, in the quiet of the negotiation process.”
The sanctions threatened by the Trump administration could include secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy oil and gas from Russia, including China and India.
On July 14, as he hosted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said, “I’m disappointed in Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there.”
“So based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs … It’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100 percent and that’s the way it is.”
On Monday, Trump said that Russia has proven to be “pretty good at avoiding sanctions.”
“They’re wily characters,” he said of the Russians, who have created a so-called shadow fleet, which ships oil and other goods around the world to avoid sanctions.
‘We’ll See What Happens’
Taking questions from reporters on Tuesday, Trump was asked if he still planned to put 100 percent tariffs on countries that purchase energy supplies from Russia.
Trump said, “I never said a percentage, but we‘ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time … We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens. We’ll make that determination at that time.”
At the White House on August 5, Trump said, “This is Biden’s war, it’s not my war. It’s a mess. And I’m here to get us out … I stopped five wars in the last five months actually, and I’d like this to be the sixth frankly, and that doesn’t even include Iran obliterating their nuclear haul because they would’ve had nuclear weapons within two months. But I stopped a lot of wars.”
Trump said of the conflict in Ukraine, “This is the one I’m trying to stop. This is the one we’re working hardest on. The other ones I stopped within a matter of days.”
Witkoff, an attorney and real estate investor from New York who has no foreign policy background, was appointed by Trump in November 2024.
The Kremlin says international sanctions imposed since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 have had a limited impact.
Ukraine says the sanctions are taking their toll on Moscow, and Kyiv wants them stepped up.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday urged the United States and Europe to impose stronger secondary sanctions on Moscow’s energy, trade, and banking sectors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
