President Donald Trump Urges President Vladimir Putin to Implement a Ukraine Ceasefire Without Delay

President Donald Trump Urges President Vladimir Putin to Implement a Ukraine Ceasefire Without Delay
Petersburg, April 11, 2025:
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the third time on Friday in St. Petersburg, amid Washington’s continued efforts to persuade Russia to agree to a full ceasefire in Ukraine—efforts that have so far fallen short.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a public call via social media urging Russia to “take immediate steps” toward implementing a ceasefire.

“Russia needs to move quickly. Thousands of people are dying every week—this is a tragic and unnecessary war,” Trump wrote.

The meeting took place at a time when the UK and Germany were co-hosting a major summit of Ukraine’s allied nations in Brussels, where 50 countries agreed to provide Ukraine with €21 billion in military aid.

However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed expectations, saying:

“No major breakthrough should be expected from this meeting, as the process of normalizing relations is still ongoing.”

Prior to the main meeting, Witkoff met at the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg with Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Dmitriev had visited Washington just last week, marking the first official Russian visit to the U.S. since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In addition, the U.S. and Russia recently completed a prisoner exchange deal.
Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American detained in Russia for donating just $51 to a Ukrainian charity, was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, who was arrested in Cyprus in 2023 on charges of exporting sensitive microelectronics to Russia.