White House envoy Steve Witkoff was in Russia on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin after peace talks with Ukraine stalled out in recent weeks, ‘frustrating’ President Donald Trump.
‘This is another step in the negotiating process towards a ceasefire,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of the meeting. ‘I think the president has been quite clear that he’s been continually frustrated with both sides of this conflict, and he wants to see this fighting, and he wants the war to end.’
Russian media broadcast images of Putin and Witkoff meeting at the presidential library in St. Petersburg.
Leavitt said the U.S. had ‘leverage’ over Ukraine and Russia to pressure them to agree to peace.
‘We believe we have leverage in negotiating a deal… And we’re going to use that leverage. And the president is determined to see this through,’ Leavitt said.
Trump has demanded that both sides agree to an immediate 30-day ceasefire while they hash out a longer peace deal. Ukraine has agreed to this, while Russia has not. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Ukraine had found two Chinese men fighting on behalf of Russia within their borders, a development that would suggest Russia is receiving direct manpower aid from both North Korea and China.
Zelenskyy said at least 155 Chinese citizens were fighting for Russia as he accused Putin of ‘prolonging the war’ — a claim the Kremlin denied Thursday, stating that China takes a ‘balanced position’ to the war and that ‘Zelenskyy is wrong.’ Fox News Digital has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for further comment.
Ahead of Witkoff’s meeting with Russian officials, Trump ramped up pressure on Putin, writing on Truth Social: ‘Russia has to get moving. Too many people are DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war – a war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!’
Trump said on March 31 that he was ‘pissed off’ with the Russian leader and threatened to put ‘secondary tariffs’ on Russia’s oil exports, its financial lifeline for the war effort. That could mean sanctioning countries that buy Russian oil or cracking down on its ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers carrying oil across the globe in disguise.
Trump has previously aired out complaints about Zelenskyy, too, calling him a ‘dictator without elections.’ A public White House meeting last month erupted into a near-shouting match where Zelenskyy abruptly left the premises.
Ukraine agreed to both the unconditional ceasefire and a more tailored maritime ceasefire, but Russia has made a fresh round of demands, including the lifting of some sanctions.
‘We are making progress. We hope that we are getting relatively close to getting a deal between Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting,’ Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The U.S. and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange deal that saw the return of ballerina and U.S.-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina to the U.S. on Friday. Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison at the start of the war in 2022 for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity.
On Thursday, U.S. and Russian officials met in Istanbul to discuss reopening operations at each other’s embassies.
The St. Petersburg gathering is Witkoff’s third meeting with Putin this year. Over the weekend he will head to Oman to negotiate with Iran in nuclear talks.
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was ‘no need to expect breakthroughs’ and the ‘process of normalizing relations is ongoing.’
Reuters contributed to this report.