WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin another probability to point out he’s severe about ending his 41-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
As greater than six months have handed with no diplomatic progress, well-placed sources inform The Publish particular envoy Steve Witkoff has been inspired to take a sterner strategy with Moscow’s chief forward of Wednesday’s make-or-break assembly — in step with President Trump’s current expressions of disgust at Putin’s continued assaults on Ukrainian civilians.
Whether or not Witkoff will take that recommendation stays unclear.
A spokesperson for the particular envoy declined to touch upon the file for this story.
In the meantime, the White Home nationwide safety crew answerable for the Ukraine battle held a number of conferences on Tuesday, attempting to work out how Washington would possibly finest persuade Russia to silence its weapons, in keeping with individuals accustomed to the matter.
Trump himself stated Tuesday he would wait to see how the sitdown went earlier than making a closing determination on whether or not to enact secondary sanctions and slapping extra tariffs on international locations that present Russia with its primary supply of earnings: oil purchases.
“We’ve a gathering with Russia tomorrow, we’re going to see what occurs. We’ll make a willpower at the moment,” stated the president, earlier than denying that he had promised to set the extra charges at 100% — as he appeared to counsel final month.
“I by no means stated a share, however we’ll be doing fairly a little bit of that. We’ll see what occurs over the following pretty quick time frame.”
A supply accustomed to discussions insisted that sanctions are usually not inevitable when Trump’s deadline is reached Friday, saying the administration is “pushing laborious for a deal. That’s at all times the president’s most popular consequence.”
As a part of his prep, Witkoff has been briefed on the historic motivations behind Putin’s battle on Ukraine — particularly his want to reconstitute as a lot of the previous Soviet Union as doable, in keeping with a US official.
Final month, as Trump’s rhetoric towards Moscow started to toughen, Particular Presidential Envoy to Ukraine retired Gen. Keith Kellogg stated that the president “now realizes that Putin shouldn’t be a enterprise associate.”
The commander in chief — so typically praised for his businesslike, transactional strategy to politics — is up in opposition to a ruler who represents the alternative of that strategy.
That’s why the sooner, extra cordial strategy — full with Witkoff jovially greeting Putin on the Kremlin — didn’t work, in keeping with one supply. Subsequent gives of decreased sanctions and off-ramps for Russia to finish its battle had been additionally not sufficient to influence Moscow to vary its calculus.
Russia, for its half, is hoping for extra of the identical. Witkoff’s Wednesday journey comes on the behest of the Kremlin, which invited the envoy after Trump threatened to levy the secondary sanctions.
In the meantime, as Trump’s phrases towards Putin have grown more and more harsh, Kremlin thought leaders have been denigrating the US president on X.
Russian thinker and Putin confidant Alexander Dugin declared Monday that Trump was loopy, an about-face from a yr in the past, when Dugin — nicknamed “Putin’s mind” for his purported heavy affect on the Russian chief — endorsed Trump for president in 2024.
”I come to very unhappy conclusion: Donald Trump is completely mad. It’s the disgrace. We liked him,” Dugin posted to X.
Final week, ex-Russian president and present deputy chair of the Kremlin’s safety council Dmitry Medvedev additionally blasted Trump for threatening sanctions.
