Russia Says Putin Conveyed ‘Signals’ on Ukraine at Witkoff Talks
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
- Vladimir Putin exchanged "signals" with Donald Trump on the war in Ukraine at Kremlin talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff, according to Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president's foreign policy aide.
- The meeting took place before an Aug. 8 deadline Trump set for Russia to reach a truce in the war or face potential sanctions, with people familiar with the situation saying the Kremlin might offer concessions to avert new economic penalties.
- Trump has threatened secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian energy, a move that could imperil relations with China and India, and has said that if energy prices go down, Putin will be forced to stop the invasion due to his economic woes.
Vladimir Putin exchanged “signals” with Donald Trump on the war in Ukraine at Kremlin talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff, a top Russian official said Wednesday.
“On our part, in particular, some signals were conveyed on the Ukrainian issue,” the Russian president’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters, without elaborating. “Corresponding signals were also received from President Trump.”
The meeting took place just two days before an Aug. 8 deadline Trump set for Russia to reach a truce in the war or face potential sanctions. While Putin has said he won’t abandon his campaign in Ukraine, people familiar with the situation said the Kremlin might offer the US concessions that could include halting airstrikes in a bid to avert new economic penalties.
Ushakov said the negotiations that lasted almost three hours were “useful and constructive,” and also focused on prospects for developing US-Russia relations. Moscow will wait for Witkoff to report back to Trump before commenting further, he said.
Witkoff’s fifth meeting with the Russian leader this year follows an apparent shift in Trump’s approach to the war, which initially saw him focus his pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy only to increasingly express frustration with Putin in recent weeks. The barrage of Russian drones that have rained down on Ukrainian cities and the resulting images of destruction have made an impression on the US president, according to people close to him.
Trump is now publicly betting that Putin’s growing economic woes will eventually force him to end an invasion that is in its fourth year. In a CNBC interview Tuesday, he said that “if energy goes down low enough, Putin’s going to stop killing people.”
“If you get energy down another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice, because his economy stinks,” Trump added.
The US president has threatened so-called secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian energy to ramp up the pressure on Putin. It’s a risky gamble, as the Joe Biden administration found. Penalizing purchasers of Russian oil without rocking global markets requires a delicate calculus that can hurt friends as well as foes. Even Trump has shared skepticism that the penalties could work, calling the Russians “wily characters” who are “pretty good at avoiding sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Trump will be eager to avoid any economic fallout at home. US consumers are managing still-high prices at the pump this year, and domestic oil producers could struggle with supply constraints. Trump has insisted he isn’t worried about the potential impact sanctions would have within the US, telling reporters on Air Force One last week that the US could ramp up its own energy production.
“We have some oil in our country,” Trump said. “We’ll just step it up even further.”
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