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Vladimir Putin met Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Wednesday, as Washington presses the Kremlin to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine before the US president’s Friday deadline or face new sanctions.
Witkoff’s fifth meeting with the Russian president this year came after Trump had expressed growing frustration over the lack of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and threatened to step up pressure on Russia’s oil exports, an important source of funding for the Kremlin.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting had been productive. “Russia had conveyed signals to the American side on the Ukrainian issue and received corresponding signals from Trump,” Ushakov said, adding that Trump had not yet been “briefed” about the meeting’s outcome.
Still, Trump announced shortly after the meeting that he would impose an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from India due to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Russian official with close ties to Putin’s family, also attended the meeting. He greeted Witkoff at Vnukovo airport earlier on Wednesday, according to Tass, the state newswire. The main topics discussed at the three-hour long meeting were Ukraine and the prospects for “strategic US-Russia co-operation”, according to Ushakov.
“We are always pleased to see Mr Witkoff in Moscow and to be in contact with him,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters ahead of the envoy’s visit. “We consider these interactions important, substantive and very useful.”
Putin has recently dismissed US frustration over stalled negotiations, saying it was the result of unrealistic hopes.
“As for any disappointment on anyone’s part, all disappointment stems from excessive expectations, as is well known,” he told reporters on August 1 during an informal meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Trump’s criticism of Moscow’s repeated drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities has become increasingly pointed, and he has called on India to stop importing Russian oil or face punitive tariffs. “They are buying Russian oil, they are fuelling the Russian war machine, and if they are going to do that then I am not going to be happy,” he told CNBC on Tuesday.
Trump indicated in separate comments on Tuesday that he would decide after the Witkoff meeting whether to follow through on his threat to impose tariffs on countries buying Russian energy, including China.
The White House is also weighing further sanctions on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which is used to deliver oil primarily to India and China.
A potential blow to Russia’s oil revenues would add to mounting pressure from falling energy income. Russia’s budget earnings already declined after global oil prices slumped due to Trump’s tariff war, with a stronger rouble aggravating the losses.
In July, Russia’s proceeds from oil and gas fell 30 per cent year on year for the third consecutive month, according to Russian finance ministry data.
But Putin has repeatedly made it clear that for him, the priority is “fulfilling the objectives” of his “military operation” in Ukraine, not the economic considerations.
Russia’s aerial assaults have expanded hugely in recent months, with waves of drones and missiles hitting Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz said that a gas compressor station in Odesa region near the Ukrainian-Romanian border had been attacked by Russia overnight on Wednesday. Naftogaz CEO Sergii Koretskyi said it was an attack ‘‘exclusively on civilian infrastructure, targeting the energy sector as well as relations with Azerbaijan, the US and European partners’’.
Additional reporting by Amy Mackinnon
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