Trump gives Putin another chance to be nice before the ultimate, for real this time, deadline

President Donald Trump is sending his special representative, Steve Witkoff, to Moscow this week in a last attempt to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine. The trip happens just before Trump’s Friday deadline for Russia to change its actions or face new penalties.

Trump’s irritation with Russia’s behavior has become more obvious in recent weeks. He first gave a 50-day deadline in July for Russia and Ukraine to stop fighting. However, after seeing no real effort from Moscow, he cut the deadline to this Friday, August 8. The President has called Russia’s repeated strikes on Ukrainian civilians “horrible” and has also sent two nuclear submarines to the area following online threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

According to The Guardian, the message Witkoff is supposed to deliver to Russia is simple: make a deal to stop the violence. If the deadline passes without action, Trump has said the new steps could include “secondary tariffs” aimed at countries still trading with Russia, like China and India.

Trump is desperate for Russia to give in

An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, has said that if Russia does not change its behavior by Friday, Kyiv expects the US to put in place “permanent measures” for secondary sanctions on Russian oil sales. Podolyak also mentioned that if these steps do not work, the next move could be more sanctions and increased military support for Ukraine, pointing to a shift in Trump’s tone and a readiness to send more weapons to Europe so they can be passed to Kyiv.

Witkoff’s upcoming trip is getting attention, especially in Kyiv and among other US allies, because of his past connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During previous visits, Witkoff has had long private meetings with Putin and has spoken warmly about him. The Kremlin has said it is “always glad to welcome Mr. Witkoff in Moscow” and that a meeting with Putin could happen.

This will be Witkoff’s first visit since Trump’s public statements on Ukraine have become much stronger. The key question is whether Witkoff can successfully communicate this tougher message to Moscow. Podolyak said, “After that he’ll look whether this is helping to bring about the end of the war or not, and if not then he will move to the next step… Trump has already said he’s ready to sell Europe as much weapons as they want [to pass to Ukraine]. Before he didn’t say that … This is already a different conception of the world,” he said.

Meanwhile, the fighting continues with terrible results. Russia keeps launching nearly nightly drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, and last week was one of the deadliest for civilians in a while. One attack on Kyiv alone killed 31 people, including five children. Both sides keep targeting each other’s infrastructure with drones.