US President Donald Trump is expected to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine, US envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN yesterday after returning from what he described as a “positive” meeting with Putin in Moscow.
“I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” said Witkoff, who met with Putin on Thursday night, adding that he thought the talk between Trump and Putin would be “really good and positive.”
Trump is trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued trading heavy aerial strikes through the weekend and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
Trump said in a social media post on Friday that there was “a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.” He also said he had “strongly requested” that Putin not kill the thousands of Ukrainian troops that Russia is pushing out of Kursk.
The Kremlin also said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via Witkoff, expressing “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached to end the conflict.
Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasised that there are still challenges to be worked out before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much less a final peaceful resolution to the war.
Trump has warned that unless a ceasefire is reached, the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv has the potential to spiral into the Third World War.
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