LONDON — President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff is predicted to journey to Russia later this week, the president advised reporters on Sunday, in a bid to safe an elusive ceasefire deal “the place folks cease getting killed.”
Witkoff will journey to Moscow on both Wednesday or Thursday, Trump advised reporters.
Witkoff heads to Russia amid constructing frustration within the White Home, with six months of diplomacy below Trump having failed to attain a peace deal — or perhaps a ceasefire — to finish Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, which started in February 2022.
Final month, Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin, threatening sanctions and tariffs — together with secondary sanctions on high prospects for Russian vitality exports like China and India — if the Kremlin did not comply with a ceasefire.
Final week, the president reduce the window to 10 days, citing continued Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine. That 10-day deadline is about to run out on Friday.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff attends a gathering between President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary Normal Mark Rutte within the Oval Workplace on the White Home on July 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov advised reporters on Monday that Russia will “not rule out the chance” of Witkoff visiting Moscow later this week.
“We’re all the time glad to see Mr. Witkoff in Moscow and are all the time glad to have contact,” Peskov mentioned. “We take into account these contacts essential, significant and really helpful.”
“The dialogue continues and the US continues its efforts to mediate within the seek for a Ukrainian settlement,” he added. “These efforts are crucial, together with within the context of the continued means of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. Work is constant, and we stay dedicated to the concept that a political and diplomatic resolution to the Ukrainian drawback is, after all, our most popular choice.”
Russia’s state-affiliated Tass information company reported that Peskov mentioned Putin would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — a gathering Kyiv has repeatedly proposed however been rebuffed by Moscow — as soon as “preparatory work” on the “professional stage” was accomplished.
Ukraine is backing the U.S. demand for an instantaneous ceasefire, after which negotiations as to a full peace deal can happen.
Zelenskyy posted to Telegram on Monday urging stronger motion in opposition to Moscow by Kyiv’s Western companions.
“The world has sufficient energy to cease this and shield folks,” the president wrote. “We depend on sturdy selections from the U.S., Europe and the world concerning secondary sanctions on commerce in Russian vitality sources, on Moscow’s banking sector.”
Andriy Kovalenko, the pinnacle of the Counter-Disinformation Heart working as a part of Ukraine’s Nationwide Safety and Protection Council, prompt in a submit to Telegram that Witkoff’s anticipated go to later this week represents Russia’s “final likelihood to cease the conflict.”
“If the go to just isn’t profitable, there will probably be sanctions,” Kovalenko wrote.
However Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Zelenskyy’s occasion and the chair of the parliament’s overseas affairs committee, advised ABC Information he doesn’t anticipate Trump to impose sanctions on Russia’s largest fossil gas prospects — China and India — even when Putin once more refuses a ceasefire.
“My guess is that Trump would possibly impose some sort of tariffs, which will not cease China and India from shopping for Russian oil and fuel,” Merezhko mentioned.
“The important thing drawback is the way to deny Russia revenues for promoting its oil and fuel to China and India, who’re the most important consumers,” he added. “On the one hand, Trump would not need to look weak, but alternatively, he would not need to spoil relations with China and India by imposing severe sanctions.”
U.S.-Russian relations dipped final week forward of the looming ceasefire deadline, with Trump partaking in a public spat with Dmitry Medvedev — the previous Russian president and prime minister now serving because the deputy chairman of the nation’s Safety Council.
Medvedev framed Trump’s ultimatum as “a menace and a step in direction of conflict. Not between Russia and Ukraine, however together with his personal nation.”
Individuals look forward to transportation at a bus cease subsequent to a recruitment advert of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 3, 2025, 2025.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP through Getty Pictures
Medvedev’s feedback prompted Trump to then order two nuclear submarines to maneuver to “acceptable areas,” citing “extremely provocative statements” from Medvedev, who has grow to be often known as a very hawkish voice inside Putin’s safety institution.
ABC Information’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
