With Sanctions Looming, Trump’s Envoy to Russia Meets With Putin

The envoy, Steve Witkoff, passed along “signals” from President Trump, according to an aide to President Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Witkoff was making his fifth visit to Russia this year.

Steve Witkoff, an envoy for President Trump, met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the fifth time this year on Wednesday, holding talks that Mr. Trump had described as pivotal in determining whether the United States goes ahead with new sanctions against Russia.

Russian news agencies said the meeting lasted about three hours, but there was little immediate clarity about how it went. Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, called the meeting “very useful and constructive.”

Mr. Trump, in a post on social media, called it “highly productive” and added, “Great progress was made!”

But a few hours after the meeting’s end, Mr. Trump announced that he would increase his tariffs on India to 50 percent, describing the move as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil. Mr. Trump also ordered his administration to determine whether other countries are importing Russian oil and recommending whether they should face similar tariffs.

Mr. Trump had said on Tuesday that depending on the results of Mr. Witkoff’s meeting, the United States could impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its fossil fuels.

A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting, said Mr. Trump’s timetable was unchanged and that the secondary sanctions he has threatened were still expected to be implemented on Friday.

Mr. Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said that Mr. Witkoff had passed along “signals” from Mr. Trump and that Mr. Putin had conveyed “some signals” back. He added that he would offer more details once Mr. Witkoff had briefed Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump wrote in his post on social media that he had shared an update of Mr. Witkoff’s meeting with several European allies, and said that “everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”

Previous meetings between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Putin drew praise from the Kremlin without leading to any breakthroughs in stopping the Ukraine war, which Mr. Trump described as his primary goal in diplomacy with Russia.

But Mr. Witkoff’s visit on Wednesday held particular weight because it came just days before a deadline imposed by Mr. Trump for Mr. Putin to make peace.

Brief video footage released by the Kremlin from the meeting’s start showed a smiling Mr. Putin greeting Mr. Witkoff with a warm handshake as Mr. Ushakov looked on from behind an oval conference table.

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Witkoff was met at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport by Kirill Dmitriev, an economic aide to Mr. Putin who has been his main counterpart at the Kremlin. Russian state television then showed Mr. Dmitriev and Mr. Witkoff taking a walk in the morning sun in Zaryadye, a landscaped park just outside the Kremlin walls, before Mr. Witkoff headed into the Kremlin for his meeting with the Russian president.

During his recent visits to Russia, Mr. Witkoff, a longtime personal friend of Mr. Trump who now holds the title of special envoy for peace missions, has held hourslong talks with Mr. Putin himself. That has given him extraordinary access to a Russian leader who has met with few Western officials since he invaded Ukraine, and who rarely grants audiences to foreigners who are not heads of state.

Those meetings helped facilitate prisoner exchanges that freed two Americans jailed in Russia, and helped pave the way for phone calls between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. But none brought clear signs of progress in ending the war in Ukraine.

While Mr. Trump initially appeared to give Mr. Putin the benefit of the doubt and blamed President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for dragging out the three-year war, he has increasingly soured on Mr. Putin in his public comments lately. Mr. Putin, on the other hand, has sought to placate and engage with Mr. Trump without showing any willingness to compromise on his far-reaching goals in his war against Ukraine.

Mr. Trump said on July 28 that he would give Moscow 10 to 12 days to end the conflict or face a new round of financial penalties — a deadline that expires soon.

Asked on Tuesday whether he was still considering sanctioning countries like China that buy Russian energy, Mr. Trump said the United States would “be doing quite a bit of that,” but suggested that Mr. Witkoff’s visit would determine the next steps.

Mr. Putin’s forces have been advancing on the ground and have pummeled Ukraine with some of their fiercest airstrikes of the war in recent months, even as Mr. Trump has tried to negotiate peace.

Overnight, Russia again hit Ukraine with drone strikes. A summer holiday resort in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine was targeted, killing two people and injuring 12, including children, Ukrainian officials said.

Mr. Zelensky said he discussed the details of Wednesday’s call with Mr. Trump and European leaders in a separate conversation. He didn’t release any of those details, but said, “Our joint position with our partners is absolutely clear — the war must end.”

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York, Erica L. Green from Washington and Maria Varenikova from Kyiv, Ukraine.

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