US envoy meets with Putin as ceasefire 'deadline' looms

Trump to meet president of Russia and Zelensky next week

- JABED AHMED & STEFFIE BANATVALA

Donald Trump has claimed that the end of the Ukraine war could come in weeks, despite his deadline fast approaching for Vladimir Putin to reach a ceasefire.

The US president insisted "great progress" had been made between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president following a three-hour meeting in Moscow yesterday. Mr Witkoff had travelled to Russia in an attempt to convince the Russian president to sign a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.

Afterwards, Mr Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social: "Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

He made no mention of the further tariffs he has promised to impose on Russia if tomorrow's deadline is not met. However, a White House official told reporters that secondary sanctions "are still expected to be implemented".

According to reports last night, Mr Trump plans to meet in person with Mr Putin next week; the US president then plans to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the New York Times reported.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the talks were "useful and constructive", adding that the two sides had exchanged "signals" on the Ukraine issue. Mr Ushakov said they had discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but he declined to give more details before Mr Witkoff had reported back to the US president.