FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Shortly after Witkoff left Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchase of Russian oil. The tariff would take effect on August 27...
US President Donald Trump said "great progress" has been made on the Ukraine issue during talks between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump described the meeting as "very productive" in a post on the Truth Social platform.
The Kremlin previously issued a vague statement about the talks, with foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov saying the two sides had exchanged "signals" as part of "constructive" talks in Moscow.
He also said that Russia and the US had discussed the possibility of strategic cooperation, but refused to share more information until Witkoff had briefed the US president.
The meeting took place days before Trump's deadline to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Trump said he had briefed some of America's European allies after the talks. "Everyone agrees that this war must end and we will work towards that in the days and weeks ahead," he said.
Discussions between Putin and Witkoff appeared cordial, despite Trump's growing irritation at the lack of progress in negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.
Images distributed by Russian media showed Putin and Witkoff, who have met several times before, smiling and shaking hands in a gilded hall in the Kremlin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff's visit, with European leaders also on the call. "The war must end," he said.
Trump has said that Russia could face severe sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all who trade with it if it does not take steps to end the war.
Shortly after Witkoff left Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for purchases of Russian oil. The tariff would take effect on August 27.
Earlier this week, the US president accused India of not caring "how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine."
Ahead of Wednesday's talks, Zelensky warned that Russia would only take serious steps towards peace if it ran out of money.
Expectations for a resolution by Friday are dim, and Russia has continued its large-scale air strikes on Ukraine despite Trump's threats of sanctions.
Before taking office in January, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. He failed, and his rhetoric toward Russia has hardened since then.
"We thought we had resolved the war a few times, and then President Putin comes out and starts launching missiles at a city like Kiev and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or wherever," he said last month.
Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to stop the war, which began three and a half years ago.
Moscow's military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kiev and its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly rejected Kiev's requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
Meanwhile, the US administration on Tuesday approved additional military arms sales worth $200 million to Ukraine, following a phone call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defense cooperation and drone production.
Ukraine has used drones to strike Russian refineries and energy facilities, while Moscow has focused its airstrikes on Ukrainian cities.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said the death toll from an attack on the city last week had risen to 32, after one man died from his wounds. The attack was the deadliest in Kyiv since the start of the occupation.
Ukrainian authorities reported on Wednesday that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central Zaporizhia region left two dead and 12 injured.
"There is no military meaning in this attack. It is just cruelty to scare people," Zelensky said.
Lini një Përgjigje