Special Envoy Witkoff Arrives at Moscow in Last-Ditch Effort To Stop Ukraine War Before Trump’s 10-Day Deadline Expires

‘You have to understand very importantly, this is Biden’s war, this is not my war. I’m here to get us out of it; it’s a mess, and I’m here to get us out,’ Trump says.

Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP
President Putin, right, and President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff at St. Petersburg, April 11, 2025. Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived at Moscow on Wednesday in a highly anticipated visit aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine. 

Mr. Witkoff’s visit comes just two days before the expiration of President Trump’s 10-day deadline for Russia to end the war. “We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens. We’ll make that determination at that time,” Mr. Trump told reporters ahead of the visit. 

“You have to understand very importantly, this is Biden’s war, this is not my war. I’m here to get us out of it; it’s a mess, and I’m here to get us out,” he added. 

The president also elaborated on what he believes could cause Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine. “If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people. Putin will stop killing people if we get energy down another $10 a barrel. He’ll have no choice because his economy stinks,” Mr. Trump told CNBC.

Washington will also raise tariffs on India “very substantially” as New Delhi continues to buy Russian oil, which Mr. Trump said “fuels the war machine.”

“India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So we settled on 25 percent but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” he said. 

Russian drone attacks continued on Ukraine overnight, leaving 2,500 people without power as a gas pipeline was targeted in the southern Odesa region.

“Work is currently under way to release gas from the system. As a result of damage to the main gas pipeline, 2,500 customers have been temporarily disconnected,” Governor Oleh Kiper said.

On Wednesday, America approved an arms deals with Ukraine worth more than $200 million, according to the defense ministry at Kyiv. 

The deals include technical support, equipment, and repairs for M777 howitzers, an extended-range, general purpose field artillery weapon.  

Ukraine will also receive cargo services and logistical services. “This is an extremely important contribution to saving lives and ensuring lasting peace in Europe. We thank the president of the United States, the U.S. secretary of defense and the American people for their consistent support of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s defense minister, Denys Shmyhal, said.


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