The American envoy Witkoff meets Vladimir Putin in Russia for ceasefire talks renewable

Russian President Vladimir Putin had talks with the American president of Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Moscow on Wednesday, said the Kremlin, a few days before a deadline imposed by the President for Russia to conclude a peace agreement with Ukraine or potentially in the face of serious economic sanctions.

The meeting between Putin and Witkoff lasted about three hours. None of the two parties gave immediate reading of the talks.

Trump first gave Moscow a deadline for 50 days, but then put up its ultimatum – the new deadline ends on Friday – while the Kremlin continued to bomb the Ukrainian cities. He threatened with “serious prices” and other economic sanctions if the bombardment does not stop.

Watch the White House Pivots in the middle of the Russian resilience sanctions:

Why the United States reduces Ukraine | On this subject

President Donald Trump is pushing a new plan in two parts to end the Vladimir Putin war in Ukraine: threatening a 100% rate on the main trade partners of Russia if an agreement is not concluded in 50 days and providing Ukraine patriotic missiles. Andrew Chang explains why Ukraine desperately needs these air defense capacities and what is behind the change of Trump. Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.

Trump has also threatened to slap prices on countries that buy Russian oil, which could considerably increase importation taxes on China and India. On Wednesday, he signed a decree – to enter into force in 21 days – to place an additional 25% rate on India for its Russian oil purchases, bearing the combined prices imposed by Washington on its 50% ally.

Earlier Wednesday, Witkoff met Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian President’s envoy for investments and economic cooperation, a sequences disseminated by TASS, said the Russian press agency belonging to the property. DMITRIEV has played a key role in three cycles of direct talks between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in recent months, as well as discussions between Russian and American officials.

These negotiations led to exchanges of prisoners of war, but not to progress on the reduction of the three -year war after the invasion by Russia of its neighbor.

Discussions follow Trump-Medvedev War of Words

Putin did not give any clue that he could be ready to make concessions.

Instead, the Russian leader and senior Kremlin officials spoke of the country’s military force. Putin announced last week that the new hypersonic missile in Russia, which he said cannot be intercepted by current NATO air defense systems, has entered service.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, in the meantime, warned that the Ukrainian war could bring Russia and the United States to an armed conflict.

Trump responded to this by ordering the repositioning of two American nuclear submarines.

Trump came to the post a second time after a presidential campaign in which he promised to quickly end the war between Russia and Ukraine, while criticizing the billions of military aid provided to Ukraine by the Biden administration, even if many exports have benefited American weapons manufacturers.

Trump has made no public promise in weapons or economic support for Ukraine, but rather encouraged other NATO members in Europe to intensify.

Air defense systems need the most. The United Nations said that the incessant blow of the urban areas of Russia on the front line had killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians.

The Kiel Institute, which follows the support of Ukraine, estimates that in June, European countries had provided 72 billion euros (114.8 billion CDN dollars) of military aid since the start of the large-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, against 65 billion euros in aid in the United States (103.7 billion CDN dollars).

European allies and Canada buy most of the equipment they plan to send from the United States, which has larger stocks of ready-made military equipment, as well as more effective weapons.

Look at the military Canadian increases drone production efforts:

Canada applies Ukraine lessons in a new arms race for drones

Canada’s government and soldiers are trying to get a Canadian advantage in a new arms race for drones by issuing industry challenges and testing everything, marine drones that can attack ships with lasers that can burn drones in the air.

2 people killed in Zaporizhzhia

Western analysts and Ukrainian officials say Putin blocks time and avoids serious negotiations while Russian forces push to capture more Ukrainian land. A Russian offensive that started in the spring and which should continue in the fall progresses faster than last year’s push, but only made slow and expensive gains and could not take big cities.

The first line situation is essential for the Ukrainian forces, but the defenses are not about to collapse, according to analysts.

As of the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, Russian forces struck a leisure center in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, killing two people and injuring 12, two of them, said on Wednesday the regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

The Russian forces launched at least four strikes on the region and initially attacked with powerful sliding bombs.

“There is no military sense in this strike. Only cruelty to intimidate,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an article on Telegram.

Russia has also struck the Ukrainian electricity network and heating gas installations, Zelenskyy said.