The Japan Times - Putin to meet Trump envoy Witkoff for Ukraine talks

US President Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to end the more than three-year conflict, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.

Witkoff's trip to Russia, his third since Trump took office, comes after Trump voiced frustration at the slow pace of ceasefire negotiations, telling NBC News last month he was "pissed off" with his Russian counterpart.

"The conversation on various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement will continue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the talks, set to take place in Putin's home city of Saint Petersburg.

"There is no need to expect any breakthroughs here, the process of normalising relations is ongoing," he was quoted as saying by Russian state media.

When asked whether the talks would touch on a possible meeting between Putin and Trump, Peskov was quoted as saying: "Maybe".

Witkoff has held two previous meetings with Putin in Russia since Trump returned to the White House in January.

After their last meeting, Witkoff, a long-time Trump ally who worked with the US president in real estate, said Putin was a "great leader" and "not a bad guy".

The envoy's praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington's approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second term.

Earlier in the day, Witkoff met Russia's top economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev.

- Rocky road to reset -

Trump has pushed for a broad rapprochement with Moscow, which has yielded some results.

On Thursday, Russia freed dual US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina from prison in exchange for suspected tech smuggler Arthur Petrov, the second exchange between Moscow and Washington in less than two months.

Karelina, arrested last January while visiting Russia to see family, was serving a 12-year sentence on "treason" charges after she donated the equivalent of around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.

The head of Moscow's foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said Friday that Russia would discuss more prisoner swaps in the future.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the swaps helped build confidence between the two sides, which deteriorated under former US President Joe Biden's administration.

"It helps build trust, which is much needed, but it will take a long time to finally restore it," he told reporters.

US and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks about restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing as relations between the two nuclear powers cooled off.

But despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump's main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.

Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

Trump recently told NBC News he was "very angry" with Putin after the Russian president criticised Zelensky's credibility and called for a transitional external administration to be put in place in Ukraine.

Separate talks in Saudi Arabia last month resulted in the White House saying both sides had agreed to halt aerial strikes on energy targets.

But no formal agreement was put in place and both sides have accused the other of continuing such attacks.

- Witkoff in Oman -

Witkoff's visit to Russia also comes ahead of crucial talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme, scheduled for Saturday in Oman.

Witkoff, whose sweeping remit covers the conflicts in both Ukraine and Gaza, is set to lead the US delegation for the negotiations.

Trump previously appeared to threaten to bomb Iran if it does not agree to a new deal to limit its nuclear programme.

Moscow, which counts Iran as a close ally, has urged for a diplomatic solution and warned military confrontation would be a "global catastrophe".

T.Sato--JT