Putin holds talks in Kremlin with Trump Special Envoy Witkoff

Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met for a fourth round of talks in Moscow on Friday, the Kremlin has announced.

Putin and Witkoff spoke for over three hours, according to TASS, and Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, who also took part in the talks, called them “constructive and important”, adding that the two sides would continue to meet “at various levels” in the future.

Ushakov said that the possibility of Russia and Ukraine resuming direct negotiations, which were abandoned in early 2022, had also been discussed, BBC News Russian reported.

Earlier on Friday, Witkoff met with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and a senior member of Putin’s negotiating team on the Ukraine war, with independent channel REN TV posting footage of the men walked down the Arbat, one of Moscow’s best known streets, surrounded by security personnel.

Following the talks, Dmitriev said that there had been “movement towards progress”, TASS said.

Witkoff’s fourth visit to Moscow came amid growing frustration in the Trump administration at the lack of progress in brokering a ceasefire and bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, which Trump repeatedly claimed he could achieve on his first day back in office.