KEY POINTS
- Trump calls Putin-US envoy talks “highly productive”.
- US envoy Steve Witkoff held a three-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow.
- Trump has threatened secondary tariffs on Russia’s trade partners, including India.
- Zelensky spoke to Trump post-meeting, calling for international pressure on Moscow.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed talks between his envoy and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine as “highly productive” but US officials said sanctions would still be imposed on Moscow’s trading partners.
Trump, who had boasted he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office, has given Russia until Friday to make progress towards peace or face new penalties.
US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin for what the Kremlin said were “constructive” talks two days ahead of the US deadline for Russia.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that “great progress was made” during the meeting — but minutes later, a senior US official, cited by AFP, said that “secondary sanctions” were still expected to be implemented on Friday.
Three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a ceasefire, with the two sides far apart in their demands.
“A quite useful and constructive conversation took place,” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists after the three-hour meeting.
Putin and Witkoff exchanged “signals” on their positions, Ushakov said, without elaborating.
The Kremlin released a video of Putin shaking hands with Witkoff at the start of the meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later on Wednesday that he had spoken by phone with Trump after Witkoff visited Moscow.
“European leaders were on the call, and I am grateful to each of them for their support,” Zelensky added on social media, without saying which leaders took part in the call.
Sanctions threat
The White House has not officially outlined what action it would take against Russia, but Trump has previously threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s key trade partners.
On Wednesday, Trump ordered steeper tariffs on Indian goods over New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would await the outcome of the Moscow talks before ordering any economic sanctions.
“We’re going to see what happens,” he told reporters. “We’ll make that determination at that time.”
Without explicitly naming Trump, the Kremlin on Tuesday slammed “threats” to hike tariffs on Russia’s trading partners as “illegitimate”.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support if it wants the fighting to stop.
Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Zelensky last week urged his allies to push for “regime change” in Moscow.
“It is very important to strengthen all the levers in the arsenal of the United States, Europe, and the G7 so that a ceasefire truly comes into effect immediately,” Zelensky wrote on social media after Witkoff landed in the Russian capital.
Nuclear rhetoric
Trump has voiced increasing frustration with Putin in recent weeks over the war in Ukraine.
When reporters asked Trump on Monday what Witkoff’s message would be to Moscow, Trump replied: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia believed the talks with Witkoff would be “important” and that it valued US efforts to end the conflict.
The visit came as Moscow-Washington tensions are running high.
Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, and that they were now “in the region”.
It is not known whether Trump meant nuclear-armed or merely nuclear-powered submarines. He also did not elaborate on the deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military.
Russia, in its first comments on the deployment, urged “caution” on Monday.
Moscow then said that it was ending a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles, suggesting that it could deploy such weapons in response to what it alleged were similar US deployments within striking distance of Russia.
