U.S.
President Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Russia for his third meeting with President Vladimir Putin in as many months, Axiosreported Friday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the trip.Witkoffs plane flew directly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and landed early Friday at Pulkovo Airport in St.
Petersburg, Russias state-run news agency TASSsaid, citing FlightRadar tracking data and an anonymous airport security service member.The Kremlin later confirmed the Trump envoy arrived in Russia but did not comment on whether he would be meeting with Putin.Wtikoff hosted Putins envoy on economic and investment cooperation Kirill Dmitriev in Washington last week, during which Dmitrievexpressed cautious optimism about renewed U.S.-Russian diplomatic engagement.The U.S.envoys visit comes a day afterreleased U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina in a prisoner exchange with the United States in Abu Dhabi.
Karelina was swappedwith Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian dual nationalarrestedin Cyprus in 2023 at the request of U.S.
authorities for allegedly exporting sensitive U.S.-made microelectronics to Russia.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.The Trump administration hailed the release of Fogel as a positive step for diplomacy.Witkoffs visit to Russia on Friday also comes amid Trumps growing frustration over stalled efforts to end the war in Ukraine.Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each otherof violating a pause in strikes against energy infrastructure, further dimming hopes for even a partial halt in attacks amid the ongoing war.That failure of that agreement, which the U.S.
brokered, could pushTrump to move forward with new sanctions on Russia either unilaterally or through Congress if no broad ceasefire is reached by the end of April, Axios cited an anonymous source familiar with the issue as saying.On Thursday the U.S.
president said were getting relatively close to achieving a ceasefire.