U.S.
President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Russia later this week, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday."We're awaiting him,"Yuri Ushakov said when asked whether Witkoff, who has traveled to Russia multiple times since Trump took office, planned to make any new trips in the near future.Ushakov did not specify what day Witkoff would arrive in Russia, nor did he say whether the Trump envoy would meet with Putin, as he has done during previous trips to the country.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed that Witkoff would visit Russia to continue discussions to end the war in Ukraine.Witkoff last visited Russia on April 11, when he met with Putin andRussian Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev in St.
Petersburg.
Following those meetings, the Kremlin said the U.S.
envoy and Kremlin leader discussed "various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement," without elaborating.After an earlier meeting in March, Witkoff, a longtime Trump ally who worked with the U.S.
president in real estate, said Putin was a "great leader" and "not a bad guy."In February, Witkoff was involved in negotiations toreleaseMarc Fogel, an American teacher jailed in Russia on drug charges, in return for Russian cryptocurrency figure Alexander Vinnik.Trump warned last week that he was ready to back out of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine unless Moscow and Kyiv showed a willingness to make progress toward peace in the coming days.When asked on Monday to comment on Trump's warning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not want to talk "about the time frame" for a potential ceasefire deal, but emphasized that "President Putin and the Russian side remain open to the search for a peaceful settlement."The U.S.
president has pushed both sides toward a ceasefire but has so far failed to extract major concessions from the Kremlin, despite a recent phone call with Putin and multiple visits to Russia by Witkoff.