A view of the Moscow Kremlin, 19 May 2025. Photo: EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for talks with Kremlin officials on Wednesday, just two days before US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Vladimir Putin to end the war or face fresh sanctions.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Witkoff was met at the capital’s Vnukovo Airport by Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a senior member of Putin’s negotiating team on the Ukraine war, before the two were pictured walking in Zaryadye Park near the Kremlin later on Wednesday morning.
The visit is Witkoff’s fifth to Russia this year, with the special envoy having met with Putin on four previous occasions. During his last visit to the Russian capital in April, Witkoff and Putin discussed the possibility of Moscow and Kyiv resuming direct negotiations on ending the war for the first time in three years.
Since then, Ukrainian and Russian delegations have held three rounds of talks in Türkiye, but remain far from a peace settlement as the two sides hold what the Kremlin has called “diametrically opposed” positions on how the war should end.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied whether Witkoff would meet with Putin again this week, saying only that Russia’s leadership was “always glad” to see Trump’s special envoy in Moscow and considered its contact with him “important, substantive and very useful”.
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” last week.
The Kremlin, however, has appeared unfazed by the US president’s threats, stressing that it had developed a “certain immunity” to Western sanctions after living under a “huge number of restrictions” since the start of the war.
Trump is expected to make a decision on whether to impose fresh sanctions on Russia, including secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil, based on the results of Witkoff’s visit.
“We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens”, the US president told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ll make that determination [on measures against Russia] at that time”.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Trump was also considering sanctioning Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, which it uses to circumvent Western restrictions and export oil to foreign markets, should no progress on an end to the war be made during Witkoff’s visit.