U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia needs to “get moving” with Ukraine ceasefire talks as his special envoy was expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg later in the day.
“Russia has to get moving. Too many people [are] DYING, thousands a week,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump’s frustration with a lack of progress on his campaign promise to end the war has grown as Moscow issues additional demands for a ceasefire. So, too, have Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating a fragile pause in strikes on energy infrastructure.
Earlier, Axios reported that Trump might “move forward” with new Russia sanctions if it does not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by the end of April.
Trump’s post, in which he described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “a terrible and senseless war,” comes during a visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff to St. Petersburg, where he scheduled to meet with Putin.
Witkoff met Putin’s international economic cooperation envoy and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, earlier in the day.
On Thursday, Russia released U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina in a prisoner exchange with the United States in Abu Dhabi. Karelina was swapped with Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian dual national arrested in Cyprus in 2023 at the request of U.S. authorities for allegedly exporting sensitive U.S.-made microelectronics to Russia.
Trump on Friday posted a video of Karelina thanking him personally for securing her release. “Glad to have you back home,” wrote in the post.
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