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\n President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> trusted foreign envoy Steve Witkoff<\/a> met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, after the Kremlin requested that Witkoff visit in a last-ditch effort to avoid the punishing new sanctions Trump has threatened to impose<\/a> this week, people familiar with the matter said.\n <\/p>\n \n Witkoff landed in Moscow<\/a> on Wednesday morning and was greeted at the airport by Russia\u2019s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Reuters reported. Video later posted by the Kremlin showed him shaking hands with Putin ahead of their meeting.\n <\/p>\n \n The meeting ended after about three hours, Russian state media TASS reported, citing the Russian presidential press service.\n <\/p>\n \n Whether Putin was able to c\ufeffonvince Witkoff \u2014 and, by extension, Trump \u2014 that he is interested in ending Russia\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine remains an open question. Trump has cast doubt on Putin\u2019s willingness to stop the fighting and appears wary of being strung along by a leader he now openly distrusts.\n <\/p>\n \n Putin, meanwhile, has maintained his maximalist ambitions for the conflict, including capturing the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson and insisting Ukraine limit the size of its military.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump said a day ahead of Witkoff\u2019s meeting he would wait until the talks conclude to decide whether to impose the new sanctions.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re going to see what happens,\u201d he said at the White House. \u201cWe\u2019ll make that determination at that time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n When asked by a reporter after arriving in Russia, Witkoff did not share his expectations ahead of the talks, Russian state media TASS said.\n <\/p>\n \n The environment in Moscow will be far different than the last time Witkoff sat down with Putin in April \u2014 with Trump\u2019s frustration toward his Russian counterpart mounting in recent months. Since the April meeting, Russia has resisted US-led efforts to broker a peace in Ukraine, ramping up an onslaught of missiles and drones that have targeted Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.\n <\/p>\n \n A day ahead of Witkoff\u2019s visit, Trump spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss potential sanctions on Moscow, according to people familiar with the conversation. In a readout of the meeting posted on social media, Zelensky said those sanctions could \u201cchange a lot\u201d when it comes to the Russian economy.\n <\/p>\n \n Zelensky also said<\/a> they discussed the increase of American weapons support to Ukraine, paid for by NATO allies, a policy Trump green-lit last month.\n <\/p>\n \n The US president has grown increasingly impatient at Russia\u2019s resistance to his peace efforts, calling the air attacks \u201cdisgusting\u201d and accusing Putin of peddling \u201cbullsh*t\u201d in their tense phone conversations.\n <\/p>\n \n He has set a Friday deadline for Russia to either agree to a peace deal or suffer new sanctions, including on its own economy and on purchasers of its energy products. Trump truncated his original 50-day timeline after seeing little movement from Russia. Yet he has also cast doubt that any new sanctions will prove effective after Moscow found ways to skirt the heaps of western measures applied since the war began.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019ll be sanctions, but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions,\u201d Trump said Sunday. \u201cYou know, they\u2019re wily characters, and they\u2019re pretty good at avoiding sanctions. So we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump also announced late last week that he was ordering the repositioning of two US nuclear submarines<\/a> in an effort to be \u201cprepared\u201d \u2013 a response to inflammatory remarks by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia\u2019s former president and current deputy chairman of its security council.\n <\/p>\n \n But even Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after those comments that Medvedev was not a relevant player and explained that his remarks were unlikely to \u201cbe a factor one way or another.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Some Europeans officials viewed Trump\u2019s announcement as a possible effort to highlight US nuclear capabilities in preparation for Witkoff\u2019s visit, two sources told CNN. It remains unclear if the US actually repositioned any of its nuclear submarines.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has threatened two distinct types of measures should Moscow not reach Friday\u2019s deadline for peace. He has said he\u2019ll apply new sanctions on Russian imports to the US, which would have minimal impact given the near-stoppage in trade between the two countries since the start of the war.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has also promised \u201csecondary tariffs\u201d on countries that import Russian energy \u2014 which would include China and India, the country\u2019s largest energy customers. That could potentially do more to cut off funding for Russia\u2019s war machine.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIs August 8 an actual deadline or part of Trump\u2019s approach, which often involves manufacturing leverage points, and then determining how to use them?\u201d said one US official. \u201cIt is not real until Trump decides it is, which is based on a number of unidentified variables.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n There have been active efforts to draw up those possible secondary sanctions in recent weeks, US officials said, adding that they believe that Trump\u2019s frustration with Putin is so intense that he might green light those measures. But Trump is also likely to back down if Russia makes a substantive offer, sources said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThese are gut feelings for him,\u201d said one source close to the White House. \u201cIt depends how he can sell it to his base.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The US and its western allies have taken numerous steps to try stifling Moscow\u2019s energy revenues, including applying a price cap on Russian crude. But so far, it hasn\u2019t caused Putin to change course. And Russia has been able to evade some of the measures on its energy products by using a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of tankers, whose ownership is hidden, to sell to China and India.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump said that could change if the price of Russian oil drops significantly.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPutin will stop killing people if you get energy down another $10 a barrel. He\u2019s going to have no choice because his economy stinks,\u201d the president said in a Tuesday telephone interview on CNBC.\n <\/p>\n \n Russia\u2019s economy has seen recent signs of weakness, including rampant inflation and higher food costs, as the weight of the three-and-a-half year war begins to take more of an effect.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has already said he\u2019ll apply a substantial tariff hike on India for its Russian energy purchases as he simultaneously works to extract concessions from New Delhi on a trade deal.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey\u2019re fueling the war machine, and if they\u2019re going to do that, then I\u2019m not going to be happy,\u201d Trump told CNBC.\n <\/p>\n \n India has argued its Russian energy purchases have stabilized the global oil market.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s less clear how intent Trump is on applying new measures on China for its Russian energy purchases. He remains on the hunt for a comprehensive trade agreement with Beijing, and US officials have described making significant progress in recent talks with their Chinese counterparts. Still, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent directly told his Chinese counterparts during trade talks in Stockholm last month<\/a> that they should be ready for sanctions if they continue to buy Russian oil.\n <\/p>\n \n Putin and China\u2019s President Xi Jinping have also deepened their relationship in recent years, and Chinese support for Russia\u2019s war efforts extends well beyond energy purchases. China has provided Russia with components for its weapons and drones used to attack Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n \n Putin and Xi are expected to meet in Beijing at the start of September around a commemoration ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.\n <\/p>\n \n In recent months, Witkoff played a less active role in the Ukraine war talks due to Russia\u2019s refusal to take substantial steps to drive an end to the conflict.\n <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-08-01t133556z-1500397439-rc2txfa5475z-rtrmadp-3-ukraine-crisis-attack-kramatorsk.jpg\")
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