US President Donald Trump looks on as US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on 28 May 2025. Photo: EPA / CHRIS KLEPONIS / POOL

US President Donald Trump has announced that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow again later this week for more talks on ending the war in Ukraine, Agence France Presse reported on Monday.

Trump was characteristically vague on details of the trip, saying only that it would take place on Wednesday or Thursday. He did separately note, however, that Russia would only be able to avoid fresh US sanctions if Vladimir Putin agreed to stop killing people.

In addition, Trump said that two US nuclear submarines, which he deployed following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, had reached their destinations, though he gave no further details of their deployment.

Witkoff, who is officially the US president’s special envoy to the Middle East, but who has now been entrusted with multiple missions to Russia on Trump’s behalf, has already visited Moscow four times this year. During his last meeting, the possibility of direct peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv was discussed.

Earlier in July, Trump threatened to impose “very severe” tariffs of up to 100% on countries that traded with Russia should Putin not agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine within 50 days, an ultimatum he then altered to “10 or 12 days” in late July.

That move led Kremlin attack dog Medvedev to accuse him of playing the “ultimatum game” with Moscow and claiming that each deadline for action the US president issued was “a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”