- Witkoff holds talks with Putin in Russia.
- The meeting comes in the form of American tensions with China, Iran Spike.
- The talks on the full ceasefire in Ukraine seem to be blocked.
Moscow: The special envoy of the American president Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, had interviews with President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Saint Petersburg of the search for a peace agreement on Ukraine while Trump told Russia to “move”.
Putin was shown on state television welcoming Witkoff in the Saint Petersburg presidential library at the start of the negotiations. THE Izvestia The media previously published a Witkoff video leaving a hotel in the city, accompanied by Kirill Dmitriev, sent to Putin’s investment.
Witkoff has become a key figure in the merger on deactivation between Moscow and Washington in the middle of the Russian speech of potential joint investments in the Arctic and in Russian minerals in the rare earths.
However, talks occur at a time when American dialogue was aimed at accepting a cease-fire before a possible peace agreement to put an end to the war in Ukraine seems to have blocked disagreements around the conditions of a complete break in hostilities.
Trump, who has shown signs of loss of patience, spoke of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels that Moscow drags his feet on a Ukrainian agreement.
Friday, he declared in an article on Truth Social: “Russia must move. Too many people are (are dying, thousands per week, in a terrible and insane war – a war that should never have occurred, and would not have taken place, if I was president !!!”
Putin said he was in principle agreeing on a complete ceasefire, but said many crucial conditions had not yet been agreed on how it would work and said that what he calls the deep causes of war has not yet been treated.
More specifically, he declared that Ukraine should not join NATO, that the size of its army must be limited and that Russia should obtain the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions which it claims to be as its own despite the fact of not fully controlling.
Moscow controlling a little less than 20% of the Ukrainian and Russian forces which continue to advance on the battlefield, the Kremlin thinks that Russia is in strong position with regard to negotiations and that Ukraine should make concessions.
Kyiv says that the conditions of Russia would be equivalent to a capitulation.
Trump-Putin meeting?
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff could discuss the possibility that the Russian chief meets Trump Face to Face.
Putin and Trump spoke by phone, but have not yet met in person since the American chief returned to the White House in January for a second four -year term.
However, Peskov played the talks of Witkoff-Putin, saying to the Russian state media before starting that the visit of the American envoy would not be “capital” and no breakthrough was expected.
He said the meeting would be a chance for Russia to express his “concerns”. Moscow and kyiv have repeatedly accused themselves of having violated a moratorium on the strike of the other energy infrastructure.
Reunion, the third this year between Putin and Witkoff, arrives at a time when American tensions with Iran and China, both close to the Allies of Moscow, were reinforced by the nuclear program of Tehran and a booming trade war with Beijing.
Witkoff, who visited a synagogue in Saint Petersburg earlier on Friday, should be due to Oman on Saturday for interviews with Iran about his nuclear program. Trump threatened Tehran with military action if she does not accept an agreement. Moscow has repeatedly offered his help to try to win diplomatic regulations.
US and Russian officials said they had made progress during the talks in Istanbul on Thursday to normalize the work of their diplomatic missions while they are starting to rebuild links.
A February meeting between Witkoff and Putin culminated with the American envoy returning home with Marc Fogel, an American teacher who, according to Washington, had been wrongly detained by Russia.
A worker of the Russian-American spa Ksenia Karelina, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia, was exchanged Thursday against Arthur Petrov, which the United States had accused of having formed a global smuggling ring to transfer the electronics sensitive to the military of Russia.
