Trump says Putin made progress, but new U.S. sanctions still set for Aug. 8 deadline
U.S. President Donald Trump’s schedule remains unchanged and
the secondary sanctions he had warned about will be imposed on Aug. 8, The
New York Times reported on Aug. 6, citing a White House official who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Analyzing the visit of Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff
to Moscow on Aug. 6, NYT noted that Trump described Witkoff’s meeting with
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on social media as “productive” and said “major
progress” had been achieved. However, just hours after the meeting, Trump
signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on imports from
India over its purchases of Russian oil. He also instructed his team to
determine whether other countries are importing Russian oil, the outlet said.
The report also stressed that Witkoff’s Aug. 6 visit to
Moscow was already his fifth this year. While his previous meetings with Putin
had received the Kremlin’s approval, NYT noted, they produced no breakthroughs
toward ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Still, the article said this latest trip carried particular
weight, as it came just days before a deadline Trump gave Putin to make peace.
According to NYT, Witkoff’s previous visits involved
hours-long talks with Putin, giving him rare access to the Russian leader, who
has avoided meetings with most Western officials and seldom grants audiences to
foreign non-heads of state since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Those meetings helped secure a prisoner swap that freed two
Americans held in Russia and paved the way for subsequent phone calls between
Trump and Putin. However, NYT emphasized that none of those conversations
yielded any clear signs of progress toward peace in Ukraine.
On July 29, Trump said the Russian dictator had 10 days —
until Aug. 8 — to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine or face additional U.S. sanctions
against Moscow, including secondary restrictions targeting countries that buy
Russian oil.
On Aug. 1, Trump reiterated that the U.S. would impose
sanctions if Russia refused to end the war by the Aug. 8 deadline. He also
quipped that Putin “knows sanctions pretty well” and understands how to evade
them.
The U.S. president had also said he would decide how to act
on his ultimatum after Witkoff returned from Moscow.
On Aug. 5, the Financial Times reported that Trump would be
“furious” if Witkoff came back empty-handed.
On Aug. 6, Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow. Their
conversation reportedly lasted about three hours.
That same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held
a phone call with Trump. European leaders also joined the conversation. According
to Zelenskyy, the joint position of Ukraine and its partners was unequivocal:
the war must end.
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