US President Donald Trump has hailed the “highly productive” meeting between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Writing on social media, Trump said “great progress” was made during talks to end the nearly four years of war in Ukraine. “Afterwards, I updated some of our European allies. Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. “Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come!” Trump said, without giving further details about what was discussed during the high-level meeting in the Kremlin.
The visit was Witkoff’s fifth trip to Moscow in his capacity as Trump’s chief negotiator with Kremlin but his first trip since Trump took tougher stance on Russia.
Wednesday’s meeting came around two weeks after Trump cut his 50-day deadline to Kremlin to end the war or face severe economic sanctions.
Trump’s threats of further sanctions sparked angry spat between Trump and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who warned that the angry rhetoric could lead to a war between the two countries. In response, Trump ordered to station two nuclear submarines to “appropriate” locations.
Trump has recently shifted his policy towards Russia after Putin’s refusal to accept the US-proposed peace negotiations to the bloodshed in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Trump called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday. Following the call, Zelenskiy said European leader also took part in the call that focused on the meeting in the Kremlin. “Our joint position is very clear: the war has to end, and it has to be a just ending. We all need a long-lasting and reliable peace. Russia must finish the war that it started,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media. He did not elaborate on what had been discussed during Witkoff’s visit to Kremlin.
