Trump tries to move peace talks: Special Representative Vitcoff arrived in the Russian Federation - the media

To spread: US President Donald Trump Special Representative Steve Witcoff arrived in Russia, where he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Sources report that Washington is disappointed in the Kremlin's actions with respect to peace talks. About it reports AXIOS with reference to its own sources and to Flightradar resource data. This is the third meeting between Vitcoff and Putin against Trump's efforts to stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

According to the sources of the publication, Trump has been disappointed that peace talks have hardly moved. In particular, he expressed dissatisfaction with Putin's separate statements about Ukraine and noted that he was "seriously angry". If the ceasefire agreement is not reached by the end of the month, Trump may initiate new sanctions against Russia. This is possible both through a personal decision under the executive power and through the relevant bill in Congress.

"We will find out very soon whether Russia is serious about peace - it is a week, not a month. I hope that," said Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a NATO summit in Brussels last week. Also last week, Vitcoff received Putin Kirill Dmitriev in Washington. The meeting aimed to move the negotiations from the dead point, but the parties did not provide comprehensive comments about it.

Ukraine has already agreed on Trump's proposal for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as a limited maritime pause. However, Russia has made a number of new requirements, in particular, partial withdrawal of US sanctions. "We are moving forward. It is hoped that we are close to agreements that will stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine," Trump said on 10 April.

On the same day, the United States and Russia exchanged prisoners, within which a dual citizen was released - Xenia Karelin. Negotiations on this exchange were the result of a meeting of Vitcoff with Putin in March. Trump thanked Putin for such a step. The other day, American and Russian diplomats held another meeting - this time in Istanbul. The topic of conversation was the possibility of normalizing bilateral relations.

At the same time, US State Department representatives have not commented on AXIOS's request for Vitcoff. We will remind, on April 10 in Istanbul there was another stage of consultations between Russia and the United States. One of the main topics of the meeting was the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, but diplomats discussed a number of other key issues.