MOSCOW: Russian Pres­ident Vladimir Putin held “constructive” talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, two days ahead of a US deadline for Russia to halt its Ukraine offensive or face fresh sanctions.

US President Donald Trump, who had boasted he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office, has given Russia until Friday to make progress towards peace or face new penalties.

After the Moscow meeting, Trump said Witkoff made “great progress” in his meeting with Putin, and the US president updated some of Washington’s European allies after the meeting.

“My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke by phone with President Trump on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“A quite useful and constructive conversation took place,” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists after the three-hour meeting.

The Kremlin released video of Putin shaking hands with Witkoff at the start of the meeting.

Sanctions threat

The White House has not outlined what action it would take against Russia, but Trump has previously threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s key trade partners, such as China and India.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would await the outcome of the Moscow talks before ordering any economic sanctions. “We’re going to see what happens,” he told reporters. “We’ll make that determination at that time.”

Without explicitly naming Trump, the Kremlin on Tuesday slammed “threats” to hike tariffs on Russia’s trading partners as “illegitimate”.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2025