Trump Envoy Meets Putin in Moscow Ahead of Ukraine Ceasefire Deadline

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The Kremlin described President Putin’s meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff as “useful and constructive,” ahead of Trump’s 8 August truce deadline. Signals were exchanged, but no progress was announced. Ukraine’s Zelensky warned Russia would only seek peace if financially pressured. On the same day, a Russian strike on a holiday camp in Zaporizhzhia killed two and injured 12, which Zelensky condemned as an act of cruelty.

The Kremlin has described a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of US President Donald Trump, as "useful and constructive."

Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, just two days ahead of Trump’s 8 August deadline for the Kremlin to commit to a truce in its ongoing war in Ukraine or face the imposition of new US sanctions.

Following the three-hour meeting, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, briefed reporters, stating that during the discussions, President Putin conveyed “signals” regarding the conflict to the US envoy and in return received “corresponding signals” from Washington. Ushakov added that more details on the negotiations would be shared after Witkoff delivered his report to President Trump.

Despite Trump’s blend of promises, threats, and diplomatic pressure, the Kremlin has remained unmoved, and the protracted stalemate in diplomatic efforts continues.

In the lead-up to the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had cautioned that Russia was unlikely to make meaningful moves toward peace unless it began to suffer financial strain. So far, three separate rounds of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to produce significant progress, more than three and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

President Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s continued and intensifying attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas. On the same day as the Moscow meeting, Ukrainian authorities reported a deadly Russian strike on a holiday camp in the central Zaporizhzhia region, which resulted in the deaths of two people and left 12 others injured.

Reacting to the incident, President Zelensky took to Telegram, condemning the attack and stressing that it had “zero military sense.” He described the assault as an act of sheer cruelty intended solely to intimidate and instill fear in the population.