President Donald Trump said his foreign envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia in the coming days as the president calls for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump revealed Witkoff’s previously unknown travel plans during an event at the White House Thursday afternoon, where he also said he planned to apply new sanctions on Moscow and described Russia’s continued assaults on Kyiv as “disgusting.”
“He’s going to Russia, believe it or not,” Trump said when questioned about Witkoff’s current trip to the Middle East, where he is meeting with officials to discuss Israel’s war in Gaza.
Additional details on Witkoff’s upcoming travel were not immediately available.
Witkoff’s last known visit to Russia was in April, when he met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Those talks did not yield an immediate breakthrough in bringing the Ukraine war to an end. And since then, Trump’s frustration toward Putin has increased as prospects for peace grow dim.
Trump vented that anger Thursday when questioned about Moscow’s latest barrage of missiles and drones aimed toward Ukraine.
“I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” he said.
And while he affirmed that he planned to apply new sanctions on Russia — which he’d previously threatened if Moscow didn’t agree to a peace deal by next week — he also downplayed the effect they might have on the course of the war or Putin’s mindset.
“Yeah, we’re going to put sanctions,” he said. “I don’t know that sanctions bother him. You know, they know about sanctions. I know better than anybody about sanctions and tariffs and everything else. I don’t know if that has any effect, but we’re going to do it.”
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