Moscow awaits ‘important’ Trump envoy visit before sanctions deadline

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Monday it was anticipating “important” talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy later this week, ahead of the US president’s looming deadline to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow if it does not make progress towards a peace deal with Ukraine.

Trump confirmed a day earlier that Steve Witkoff will visit Russia, likely on “Wednesday or Thursday”, where he is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin.

Despite pressure from Washington, Russia has continued its onslaught against its pro-Western neighbour.

Three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a possible ceasefire, with the two sides appearing as far apart as ever.

Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support.

Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week urged his allies to push for “regime change” in Moscow.

Trump’s deadline is set to expire on Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday it considered the talks with Witkoff to be “important, substantial and helpful” and valued US efforts to end the conflict.

Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump’s efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.

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When reporters asked what Witkoff’s message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”

Nuclear stand-off

The visit comes after Trump said that two nuclear submarines he deployed following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now “in the region”.

Trump has not said whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military.

Russia, in its first comments on the deployment, urged “caution”.

“Russia is very attentive to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation. And we believe that everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric,” the Kremlin’s Peskov said.

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The chief of staff to Zelenskyy on Monday backed Trump’s actions.

“The concept of peace through strength works,” Andriy Yermak wrote on social media.

“The moment American nuclear submarines appeared, one Russian drunk – who had just been threatening nuclear war on X – suddenly went silent,” he added.

Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption.

Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands, dismissed by Kyiv as “old ultimatums”, for ending his nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were “unchanged”.

Russia has frequently called on Ukraine to effectively cede control of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable.

Putin also wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO.

Zelenskyy visits troops

Russia fired a record number of drones at Ukraine last month, AFP analysis of Kyiv’s air force data showed, escalating its attacks as peace talks stalled.

Kyiv has also said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response.

Both sides said Monday they had downed dozens of enemy drones overnight in the latest barrage.

Separate Russian strikes on the southern Zaporizhzhia region, part of which it controls, killed four people, Ukrainian officials said Monday.

One more was killed by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region.

Zelenskyy was visiting troops at the front in the Kharkiv region, he said, posting a video of him awarding soldiers with medals and walking through bunkers.

Russia is seeking to establish what it calls a “buffer zone” inside the Kharkiv region along the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Zelenskyy also said Sunday that the two sides were preparing a prisoner exchange that would see 1,200 Ukrainian troops return home, following the latest round of talks in Istanbul last month.