Trump says great progress has been made in Ukraine at US-Russia talks, as the ceasefire deadline approaches

Trump also described the meeting as the highly productive “” in a post on his Social Truth platform.

The Kremlin earlier issued a vague statement about the talks, with Foreign Policy Assistant Yuri Usakov saying the two sides had exchanged “sinal” as part of the “construction talks” in Moscow.

He also said that Russia and the US had discussed the possibility of strategic co-operation, but refused to share more information until Wtkoff had informed the US president.

The meeting took place several days before Trump's deadline to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

He said he had informed some of America's European allies after the talks.

The “Everyone agrees that this war should end and we will work towards it in the days and weeks to come”, Trump said.

The White House later told the BBC that Russia had expressed its desire to meet with the American president and that he is the “open to meet both President Putin and President Zelensky”.

President Trump wants this brutal war to end”, said his press secretary, Caroline Leavet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with Trump about Witkoff's visit, with European leaders also on the phone. “The war must end”, he said.

Zelensky has warned that Russia will take serious steps towards peace only if the money starts to run out.

Wednesday's discussions between Putin and Witkoff seemed warm despite Trump's growing frustration of the lack of progress in negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.

The images distributed by the Russian media showed Putin and Witkoffin and those who met several times ago smiling and holding hands in a gilded hall in the Kremlin.

Trump has said Russia could face serious sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all those who trade with it if it does not take steps to end the war.

Immediately after Witkoff's departure from Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order that imposed an additional 25% fee on India for the purchase of Russian oil. Tarifa would go into effect on August 27th.

The American president has accused India of not caring about “as people in Ukraine are being killed by Russian war machine”.

Waiting for a solution by Friday are dim, and Russia has continued its large-scale air strikes on Ukraine despite Trump threats of sanctions.

Before taking office in January, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. He failed, and his rhetoric to Russia has been roughed up ever since.

We thought we had solved [the war] several times, and then President Putin appears and starts to launch missiles in a town like Kiev and kills many people in a nursing home or wherever it is”, he said last month.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer and end it, three and a half years after Moscow began its full invasion.

Moscow's military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kiev and its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly rejected Kiev's demands for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US administration approved on Tuesday additional military sales of $200m ($20m) to Ukraine, following a call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defence co-operation and the production of fears.

Ukraine has used its fears to crack down on Russia's oil refinerys and power facilities, while Moscow has concentrated its air strikes on Ukraine's cities.

The Military Administration of the City of Kiev said the death toll from an attack on the city last week increased to 32 after a man died of his wounds. The attack was one of the deadliest in Kiev since the beginning of the invasion.

Ukrainian authorities reported Wednesday that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central Zaporizhja region left two people dead and 12 injured.

There is no military meaning in this attack. It's just cruelty to scare people”, Zelensky said.