Russia says Putin conveyed 'signals' on Ukraine at Witkoff talks

Bloomberg News on Aug 6, 2025

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Vladimir Putin exchanged “signals” with Donald Trump on the war in Ukraine at Kremlin talks with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, a top Russian official said Wednesday.

“On our part, in particular, some signals were conveyed on the Ukrainian issue,” the Russian president’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters, without elaborating. “Corresponding signals were also received from President Trump.”

The meeting took place just two days before an Aug. 8 deadline Trump set for Russia to reach a truce in the war or face potential sanctions. While Putin has said he won’t abandon his campaign in Ukraine, people familiar with the situation said the Kremlin might offer the U.S. concessions that could include halting airstrikes in a bid to avert new economic penalties.

Ushakov said the negotiations that lasted almost three hours were “useful and constructive,” and also focused on prospects for developing U.S.-Russia relations. Moscow will wait for Witkoff to report back to Trump before commenting further, he said.

Witkoff’s fifth meeting with the Russian leader this year follows an apparent shift in Trump’s approach to the war, which initially saw him focus his pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only to increasingly express frustration with Putin in recent weeks. The barrage of Russian drones that have rained down on Ukrainian cities and the resulting images of destruction have made an impression on the U.S. president, according to people close to him.

Trump is now publicly betting that Putin’s growing economic woes will eventually force him to end an invasion that is in its fourth year. In a CNBC interview Tuesday, he said that “if energy goes down low enough, Putin’s going to stop killing people.”

“If you get energy down another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice, because his economy stinks,” Trump added.

The U.S. president has threatened so-called secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian energy to ramp up the pressure on Putin. It’s a risky gamble, as the Joe Biden administration found. Penalizing purchasers of Russian oil without rocking global markets requires a delicate calculus that can hurt friends as well as foes. Even Trump has shared skepticism that the penalties could work, calling the Russians “wily characters” who are “pretty good at avoiding sanctions.”

Meanwhile, Trump will be eager to avoid any economic fallout at home. U.S. consumers are managing still-high prices at the pump this year, and domestic oil producers could struggle with supply constraints. Trump has insisted he isn’t worried about the potential impact sanctions would have within the U.S., telling reporters on Air Force One last week that the U.S. could ramp up its own energy production.

“We have some oil in our country,” Trump said. “We’ll just step it up even further.”

Trump will face enhanced scrutiny as he decides whether to follow through on his latest sanctions threat. The U.S. president has floated tougher penalties on Russia before but walked back.

If Putin wins yet another reprieve that risks reinforcing the narrative from some investors that “Trump Always Chickens Out” — a bet made in reference to his tariff threats — that could also undercut his self-professed image as a peacemaker who says he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

If Trump does follow through on his sanctions threat, punishing purchasers of Russian oil imperils already delicate relations with two of the world’s biggest economies, China and India.

Trump has been trading barbs with India for several days, and on Tuesday morning said he would pile on more levies “over the next 24 hours” — on top of a 25% tariff rate — as Indian officials have held firm on their energy buys and called the U.S. attacks unjustified. Punishing China for its Russian energy purchases could derail efforts to extend a tariff truce with Beijing that Trump said was “getting very close to a deal.”

Zelenskyy spoke with Trump on Tuesday, calling it a “productive” conversation and raising awareness of Russia’s ramped-up attacks. The White House confirmed the call but didn’t provide further details on the discussion. Ukrainian officials also are expecting to see U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv by week’s end, according to a local media report.

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—With assistance from Eric Martin, Daryna Krasnolutska, Catherine Lucey, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Skylar Woodhouse, Gregory White, Alberto Nardelli and Andrea Palasciano.