The US envoy is having talks with Putin about Ukraine as Trump tells Moscow to “move”

• Witkoff holds talks with Putin in Russia.
• The meeting comes as US tensions with China, Iran Spike.
• Talks for a complete ceasefire in Ukraine appear late.

Moscow: US President Donald Trump Specialist Steve Witkoff held talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg for the search for a peace deal in Ukraine, as Russia said to “move”.

Putin was presented on state television witkoff at the Presidential Library of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the negotiations. THE Izvestia The News Outlet released the Witkoff video earlier, leaving a hotel in the city, accompanied by Kirill Dmitriv, Putin’s investment envoy.

Witkoff has emerged as a key number in the approach between Moscow and Washington amid speech on the Russian side of possible joint investments in the Arctic and Russian minerals rare land.

However, talks come at a time when the US-Russia dialogue aimed at a ceasefire agreement before a possible peace agreement on ending the war in Ukraine seems to have delayed disagreements about the conditions for a complete cessation of hostilities.

Trump, who has shown signs of loss of patience, talked about imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels that Moscow is dragging his feet to a Ukrainian deal.

On Friday, he said in a position on the truth social: “Russia must move.

Putin said he was ready in principle to agree on a complete ceasefire, but has said that many critical conditions have not yet been agreed on how it would work and has said that what he calls the main causes of the war has not yet been addressed.

Specifically, he said that Ukraine should not be included in NATO, that the size of its army must be limited and that Russia must take the whole territory of the four Ukrainian regions that claims as its own despite the fact that it does not fully control any of them.

With control of Moscow, just below 20% of Ukraine and Russian forces that continue to move on to the battlefield, Kremlin believes that Russia is in a strong position when it comes to negotiations and that Ukraine must make concessions.

Kiev says that the terms of Russia would be equivalent to capitulation.

Trump-Putin meeting?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff could discuss the ability of the Russian leader to meet Trump face to face.

Putin and Trump have spoken by phone, but they have not yet met since the US leader returned to the White House in January for a second four -year term.

However, Peskov played Witkoff-Putin talks, saying to Russian state media before they started that the visit of the US envoy would not be “important” and no discoveries were expected.

She said the meeting would be an opportunity for Russia to express her “concerns”. Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of breaking a moratorium to hit each other’s energy infrastructure.

The meeting, the third this year between Putin and Witkoff, comes at a time when US tensions with Iran and China, and the two close allies of Moscow, have increased by Tehran’s nuclear program and an emerging trade war with Beijing.

Witkoff, who visited a synagogue in St. Petersburg earlier on Friday, is due to Oman on Saturday for talks with Iran for his nuclear program. Trump threatened Tehran with military action if it did not agree with agreement. Moscow has repeatedly offered her help in trying to complete a diplomatic settlement.

Americans and Russian officials said they had made progress during talks in Istanbul on Thursday to normalize the work of their diplomatic missions as they begin to rebuild ties.

A February meeting between Witkoff and Putin culminated with the US envoy who was flying home with Marc Fogel, an American teacher whom Washington said he was incorrectly held by Russia.

A Russian-American worker at Spa Ksenia Karelina, who was sentenced to 12 years in Russia, exchanged on Thursday for Arthur Petrov, which the US accused of shaping a global smuggling ring to carry sensitive electronics to the army.