Trump: Russia wants to meet with my special envoy Vitkoff

Steve Witkoff. Photo: AP

US President Donald Trump has announced that his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is likely to visit Russia on 6 or 7 August. According to Trump, the meeting was initiated by the Russian side.

Speaking to journalists in New Jersey, Trump said that if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire by Friday, 8 August, the US may impose sanctions.

He added that Russia knows how to circumvent restrictions: «They're cunning and they're good at avoiding sanctions, so we'll see».

Trump also referred to the war in Ukraine again, calling it «terrible» and adding that it is taking many lives. He said he intends to stop it: «We have stopped many wars... We will stop this one too».

As a reminder, US President Donald Trump gave Russian leader Vladimir Putin 10 days to conclude a peace agreement with Ukraine.

It should be noted that Donald Trump is dissatisfied with the progress of peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, the Kremlin said that it had read US President Donald Trump's statement on reducing the timeframe for resolving the war in Ukraine from 50 to 10-12 days. The Russian side also stressed that it intends to continue to protect its interests in the negotiation process.