LONDON — President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff is anticipated to journey to Russia later this week, the president instructed reporters on Sunday, in a bid to safe an elusive ceasefire deal “the place individuals cease getting killed.”
Witkoff will journey to Moscow on both Wednesday or Thursday, Trump instructed reporters.
Witkoff heads to Russia amid constructing frustration within the White Home, with six months of diplomacy beneath Trump having failed to realize 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 clients for Russian power exports like China and India — if the Kremlin didn’t conform to a ceasefire.
Final week, the president lower the window to 10 days, citing continued Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine. That 10-day deadline is ready to run out on Friday.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff attends a gathering between President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary Common 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 instructed reporters on Monday that Russia will “not rule out the likelihood” of Witkoff visiting Moscow later this week.
“We’re at all times joyful to see Mr. Witkoff in Moscow and are at all times joyful to have contact,” Peskov mentioned. “We think about these contacts necessary, significant and really helpful.”
“The dialogue continues and the USA 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 continuing means of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. Work is continuous, and we stay dedicated to the concept a political and diplomatic answer to the Ukrainian downside is, after all, our most popular possibility.”
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 “skilled stage” was accomplished.
Ukraine is backing the U.S. demand for a direct ceasefire, after which negotiations as to a full peace deal can happen.
Zelenskyy posted to Telegram on Monday urging stronger motion towards Moscow by Kyiv’s Western companions.
“The world has sufficient energy to cease this and defend individuals,” the president wrote. “We depend on robust choices from the U.S., Europe and the world concerning secondary sanctions on commerce in Russian power sources, on Moscow’s banking sector.”
Andriy Kovalenko, the top of the Counter-Disinformation Middle working as a part of Ukraine’s Nationwide Safety and Protection Council, instructed in a put up to Telegram that Witkoff’s anticipated go to later this week represents Russia’s “final probability to cease the battle.”
“If the go to just isn’t profitable, there will probably be sanctions,” Kovalenko wrote.
However Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Zelenskyy’s social gathering and the chair of the parliament’s international affairs committee, instructed ABC Information he doesn’t count on Trump to impose sanctions on Russia’s largest fossil gasoline clients — China and India — even when Putin once more refuses a ceasefire.
“My guess is that Trump may impose some form of tariffs, which will not cease China and India from shopping for Russian oil and gasoline,” Merezhko mentioned.
“The important thing downside is deny Russia revenues for promoting its oil and gasoline to China and India, who’re the largest patrons,” he added. “On the one hand, Trump does not need to look weak, but alternatively, he does not need to spoil relations with China and India by imposing critical 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 battle. Not between Russia and Ukraine, however along with his personal nation.”
Individuals await 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 by way of Getty Pictures
Medvedev’s feedback prompted Trump to then order two nuclear submarines to maneuver to “applicable 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.
