WASHINGTON: The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was very productive, and great progres...
WASHINGTON: The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was very productive, and great progress was achieved, head of the Washington administration Donald Trump said.
"My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made! 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," he said on Truth Social.
Earlier, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov told reporters that Witkoff had been received by Putin in the morning, and the two had a useful and constructive conversation. According to him, Russia has sent some signals on the Ukrainian issue, and received corresponding signals from Trump.
A White House official earlier told reporters that the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, in the opinion of the Washington administration, went well, and Russia demonstrated interest in continuing cooperation with the United States. However, the official said that Washington still plans to impose secondary anti-Russian sanctions on Friday, August 8.
On July 14, Trump slapped a 50-day deadline on Russia to incentivize it to strike a peace agreement with Ukraine. In case of failure Trump threatened 100% trade duties against Moscow and its trading partners.
On July 29, the American leader slashed the deadline to ten days, noting that he did not know whether such a step would affect Russia's position.
A senior US diplomat, John Kelly, told the United Nations Security Council that Trump had made it clear that he wants a deal to end the war by August 8.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 30 that the Russian economy was successfully operating despite Western sanctions.
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