Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in the Kremlin with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov announced, quoted by TASS, BTA reported.
This is the second meeting between Putin and Witkoff in the last two weeks and the fourth since the beginning of the year. The previous one took place in St. Petersburg on April 11 and lasted over four hours, the agency recalls.
The Ukrainian issue is on the agenda. Peskov has already noted that the problem has many aspects, "the matter is very complex and therefore, as a rule, the talks are quite lengthy".
The Kremlin describes contacts with Witkoff as extremely useful and emphasizes that this is a very good and reliable channel for familiarizing Putin and Trump with the positions of the other side.
A video published by the Kremlin press center shows Witkoff and Putin shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries before sitting at either end of an oval table. Putin is accompanied by his foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev. "How are you feeling, Mr. President?", Witkoff addresses Putin. "Okay, thank you! And how are you feeling?", the Russian president replies and extends his hand to Witkoff. "I am very glad to see you!", the White House special envoy added. After which he and Putin headed to the negotiating table.
Witkoff arrived in Moscow a day after Trump criticized the Russian airstrike on Kiev, which killed at least 12 people. "Vladimir, stop it", the American president wrote on the social network "Truth Social". At the same time, he noted in his post that there was significant progress in the peace talks. "The next few days will be very important. Meetings are taking place right now,", Trump added.