President Donald Trump’s trusted foreign envoy Steve Witkoff is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, after the Kremlin requested that Witkoff visit in a last-ditch effort to avoid the punishing new sanctions Trump has threatened to impose this week,

Despite President Trump's threat of sweeping sanctions, expectations for a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv are muted.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a last-minute mission to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war, two days before the expiry of a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Russia to agree to peace or face new sanctions.