Trump tells Russia to ‘get moving’ on Ukraine as Witkoff meets Putin

MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump on Friday told Moscow to “get moving” on ending its “senseless war” with Ukraine, moments before his envoy Steve Witkoff began talks with Vladimir Putin in Russia on the conflict.

Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire since returning to the White House but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.

The US leader told NBC News last month that he was “pissed off” with his Russian counterpart, while top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned last week that Washington would not tolerate “endless negotiations” with Russia over the conflict.

“Russia has to get moving,“ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that the conflict -- which began more than three years ago when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine -- was “senseless” and “should have never happened”.

Kyiv and several of its Western allies suspect Russia of stalling the talks on purpose.

And after accusing Moscow of dragging Beijing into its invasion, Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday that hundreds of Chinese nationals were fighting at the Ukraine frontline alongside Russia.

Shortly after Trump’s post, the Kremlin said talks between Putin and Witkoff had started. The meeting, taking place in Putin’s home city of Saint Petersburg, would touch on “various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“There is no need to expect any breakthroughs here, the process of normalising relations is ongoing,“ Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian state media.

When asked whether the two would discuss a possible meeting between Putin and Trump, Peskov was quoted as saying: “Maybe”.

Witkoff has held two previous meetings with Putin in Russia since Trump’s return in January.

After their last meeting, Witkoff, a long-time Trump ally who worked with the US president in real estate, said Putin was a “great leader” and “not a bad guy”.

The envoy’s praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington’s approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second term.

‘Using Chinese lives’

Kyiv said this week that its forces had captured two Chinese nationals in the eastern Donetsk region fighting for Moscow.

The Kremlin denied the claim, while Beijing warned parties to the conflict against making “irresponsible remarks”.

“As of now, we have information that at least several hundred Chinese nationals are fighting as part of Russia’s occupation forces,“ Zelensky told military chiefs from allied countries in Brussels.

“This means Russia is clearly trying to prolong the war -- even by using Chinese lives.”

The Ukrainian leader also called out Russia for having refused a complete ceasefire proposed by the United States with Ukrainian approval a month ago.

Putin last month rejected a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

‘Restore trust’

Trump has pushed for a broad rapprochement with Moscow, which has yielded some results.

On Thursday, Russia freed dual US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina from prison in exchange for suspected tech smuggler Arthur Petrov, the second exchange between Moscow and Washington in less than two months.

Karelina, arrested last January while visiting Russia to see family, was serving a 12-year sentence on “treason” charges after she donated the equivalent of around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.

The head of Moscow’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said Friday that Russia would discuss more prisoner swaps in the future.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the swaps helped build confidence between the two sides, which deteriorated under former US President Joe Biden’s administration.

“It helps build trust, which is much needed, but it will take a long time to finally restore it,“ he told reporters.

US and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks about restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing as relations between the two nuclear powers cooled off.

But despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.

Separate talks in Saudi Arabia last month resulted in the White House saying both sides had agreed to halt aerial strikes on energy targets.

But no formal agreement was put in place and both sides have accused the other of continuing such attacks.