US President Donald Trump told Moscow yesterday 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 “(a vulgar word meaning unhappy)” 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 said yesterday 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 took in Putin’s home city of St Petersburg and touched 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 before the meeting.The talks concluded after more than four hours.The Kremlin posted a photo on its website of the two men shaking hands, saying that the meeting had taken place.“The theme of the meeting – aspects of a Ukrainian settlement,” it said.Russian news agencies said the meeting lasted more than four hours.Interfax news agency said that Witkoff, Trump’s envoy for the Middle East who is increasingly involved in Russian affairs, had left the site of the talks – the presidential library in St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.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 that 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.
