Putin asked US envoy to take message to Trump amid truce talks

Greg Sullivan, Bloomberg News on Mar 14, 2025

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Russian President Vladimir Putin asked for messages to be relayed to U.S. counterpart Donald Trump during late-night talks with American envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, the Kremlin said.

“Additional information was provided to the Russian side,” Peskov told reporters Friday, according to the Interfax news agency. “Putin asked Witkoff to convey information and additional messages to President Trump.”

A decision on a phone call between Trump and Putin will be made once Witkoff has passed on the information from the talks, and both sides understand the need for a discussion, Peskov said, without giving further details. There are reasons for “cautious optimism” about prospects for a ceasefire, he said, according to Interfax.

State-run Tass news agency earlier reported that Witkoff had left Moscow, and that his plane was in Baku, Azerbaijan. Witkoff traveled to Moscow on Thursday to seek Russia’s agreement to a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has said it’s ready to accept.

Trump praised the “very good and productive discussions” in a social media post Friday, also saying he “strongly requested” Putin spare the lives of thousands of Ukrainian troops he said were in a “very bad and vulnerable position.”

Trump didn’t say what he was referring to. Russian troops have regained ground in the Kursk region that Ukrainian troops took in a surprise incursion in August. Kyiv had hoped those areas could be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Moscow.

The agreement hammered out at talks between top U.S. and Ukrainian officials in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Tuesday has turned the spotlight onto Russia in efforts to halt the fighting in the more than three-year-long war that Putin started. Ahead of his meeting with Witkoff, Putin stopped short of backing the proposed truce, saying he wanted to discuss “issues” with Trump.

“We agree with the proposals to stop hostilities, but we start from the position that this cessation should lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “Then there arise questions over monitoring and verification” of any truce along an almost 2,000 kilometer-long (1,250 mile) front line, he said.

Drones attacked Moscow for the second time in a week on Friday with at least one hitting a central area not far from government buildings.

Air defenses intercepted four drones, and emergency services were working at sites where debris fell, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Friday on Telegram. Video and images posted on social media appeared to show a damaged apartment building just 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from the Foreign Ministry and 4 kilometers from the Kremlin.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said 28 Ukrainian drones were intercepted across six regions, including the capital. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Propaganda, said on Telegram that “unknown drones” had attacked Moscow.

On Tuesday, Ukraine launched a record number of drones at Russia overnight, hours before the talks in Jeddah. Russia said it downed 337 drones, including 91 over the capital region alone.

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With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.