Trump Tells Putin To ‘Get Moving’ On Ukraine Peace Negotiations, Clock Ticking 

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff was in St. Petersburg Friday where he met with President Putin for the third time, amid ongoing efforts to normalize US-Russia relations and find a way forward toward Ukraine peace.

But President Trump remains impatient and is growing frustrated on the question of achieving peaceful settlement on Ukraine, and the clock is ticking as critics say the Kremlin is intentionally buying and wasting time, making slow but steady gains on the battlefield all along.

For this reason Trump said Friday that Russia needs to “get moving” with Ukraine ceasefire talks, also as Zelensky has alleged that Putin is not actually genuine about seeking peace.

“Russia has to get moving. Too many people [are] DYING, thousands a week,” Trump wrote in a fresh post on Truth Social.

Ironically the same day Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that no one should expect “breakthroughs” anytime soon, and yet this is precisely what Trump wants in Ukraine: a breakthrough and a path to settlement. BBC details of Friday:

Before the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was “no need to expect breakthroughs” as the “process of normalizing relations is ongoing”.

Witkoff first met with Kirill Dmitriev at the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg where a conference was being held on stainless steel and the Russian market.

Dmitriev, the 49-year-old head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, visited Washington DC last week and was the most senior Russian official to go to the US since the full scale invasion of Ukraine.

Asked if discussions could include setting up a date for Putin and Trump to meet, Peskov said: “Let’s see. It depends on what Witkoff has come with.”

Just a week-and-a-half ago Trump had signaled Putin in words given to NBC: “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.”

Here’s Friday’s Truth Social post telling Putin to get moving…

The Washington Post described of the Witkoff-Putin meeting:

Video footage published by the Kremlin showed Witkoff and Putin shaking hands before the start of their talks, which lasted over four hours. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that they would discuss the war in Ukraine and that it was “a good opportunity to convey Russia’s position to Trump.”

Such threatening rhetoric has ramped up amid concerns Putin is intentionally slow-playing and taking advantage of the process. But the Kremlin has made clear that it will never budge on certain conditions – especially Russian ownership of Crimea and the four eastern territories, and of course a commitment to Ukraine demilitarizing and no more NATO expansion.

But Kiev itself hasn’t budged on these things either, so Trump might equally be frustrated at Zelensky too. This was on display late last month and in some recent administration rhetoric. Meanwhile Moscow is being accused of expanding recruitment for its Ukraine operations, and Zelensky continues condemning Chinese ‘assistance’ to Moscow’s war efforts.