LONDON — President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff is predicted to journey to Russia later this week, the president instructed 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 instructed 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 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 Basic 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 completely happy to see Mr. Witkoff in Moscow and are at all times completely happy to have contact,” Peskov stated. “We contemplate 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 continued technique 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, in fact, our most well-liked choice.”
Russia’s state-affiliated Tass information company reported that Peskov stated 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 degree” was accomplished.
Ukraine is backing the U.S. demand for a right away 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 relating to 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, advised in a publish to Telegram that Witkoff’s anticipated go to later this week represents Russia’s “final likelihood to cease the battle.”
“If the go to shouldn’t be profitable, there might be sanctions,” Kovalenko wrote.
However Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Zelenskyy’s occasion and the chair of the parliament’s overseas affairs committee, instructed ABC Information he doesn’t count on 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 may impose some sort of tariffs, which will not cease China and India from shopping for Russian oil and fuel,” Merezhko stated.
“The important thing downside is easy methods to deny Russia revenues for promoting its oil and fuel to China and India, who’re the most important patrons,” he added. “On the one hand, Trump would not wish to look weak, but however, he would not wish 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 risk and a step in direction of battle. Not between Russia and Ukraine, however together with his personal nation.”
Folks 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 by way of 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 change into generally known as a very hawkish voice inside Putin’s safety institution.
ABC Information’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
