U.S. envoy is expected to visit Russia as Trump’s Ukraine deadline nears

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy for peace missions, speaks with reporters outside of the White House in Washington, March 6, 2025. (Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times)

By Natalia Vasilyeva

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy for peace missions, may travel to Russia this week as the United States continues to press the Kremlin to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine, Trump said.

Witkoff “may be going to Russia” on Wednesday or Thursday, the president told reporters late Sunday. The visit would come as Trump’s 10-day ultimatum nears for President Vladimir Putin of Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face U.S. sanctions.

Asked what Witkoff’s message for Russia would be, Trump said: “We’ve got to get to a deal where people stop getting killed.”

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told Russian news agencies Monday that it would “not rule out the possibility” of a meeting between Witkoff and Putin this week.

Frustrated by deadly Russian attacks in Ukraine and a lack of progress on talks, Trump said July 28 that he would give Moscow 10 to 12 days to end the conflict or face a new round of financial penalties. Trump has repeatedly threatened to punish Russia over its escalating attacks in Ukraine but so far has not followed through.

Asked late Sunday what would happen if Russia does not agree to end the war by his deadline, Trump said: “Well, there will be sanctions, but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions.”

Trump began his presidency with overtures to Putin, claiming that Ukraine had provoked Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and that Moscow wanted the war to end.

Although he initially welcomed Washington’s mediation efforts with Ukraine, Putin has been dragging his feet on a number of ceasefire offers. He has also suggested counterproposals or insisted that a simple ceasefire would not resolve the underlying causes of the conflict as Moscow sees them.

Putin has not directly responded to the White House’s ultimatum but has said that people who are disappointed with the lack of quick progress toward a peace deal have “inflated expectations.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials last met briefly in Istanbul in July for talks aimed at ending their war but made little headway.

Putin is open to direct talks with Ukraine and would be willing to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, if all Russian preconditions for the meeting are met, Peskov told reporters Monday, repeating a familiar Kremlin assertion.

The Kremlin is unlikely to halt hostilities immediately, observers say, as Russian troops are waging a summer offensive in Ukraine and have been making territorial gains. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been struggling with delays in arms shipments and insufficient combat troops.

In another sign of his frustrations with Russia, Trump said Friday that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be repositioned in response to social media threats from Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president. It was unclear whether any submarines had changed position.