Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport was a hive of activity on April 22, as Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s handpicked envoy, stepped off a plane into the Russian capital. His mission: sit down with Vladimir Putin to hammer out a ceasefire in the grinding, three-year Ukraine war. This is Witkoff’s fourth trip to Russia since Trump took office in January, and the stakes couldn’t be higher—thousands are dying each week, and Trump’s pushing hard for a deal to stop the bloodshed.
Witkoff, a real estate tycoon turned diplomat, has been shuttling between capitals to keep talks alive. His latest Moscow visit, confirmed by the White House on April 22, follows a tense April 11 meeting in St. Petersburg, where he and Putin talked for nearly five hours. That session, described by Russian officials as “productive,” focused on a potential 30-day ceasefire, but progress has been sluggish. Trump, never one to mince words, vented his frustration on social media days before Witkoff’s arrival, urging Russia to “get moving” or face new sanctions.
The Kremlin’s keeping details tight, but Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said the talks would zero in on Ukraine. A US-Ukraine agreement from March, hashed out in Saudi Arabia, proposed a 30-day pause in fighting, which Kyiv accepted—contingent on Moscow’s buy-in. Putin’s signaled he’s open to a truce but slapped down conditions that have Ukraine and its allies bristling: no NATO membership for Kyiv, a cap on its military, and Russian control over four eastern regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—plus Crimea. Kyiv’s flat-out rejected ceding territory, and European leaders, meeting in Brussels on April 11, pledged €21 billion in military aid to Ukraine, signaling doubts about Moscow’s sincerity.
Witkoff’s no stranger to the spotlight—or controversy. His earlier Moscow trips, including one in March, sparked a flurry of diplomatic back-and-forth. A March 19 call between Trump and Putin yielded a partial win: both leaders agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure. But the broader ceasefire remains elusive, with Ukraine accusing Russia of bombing civilian targets, including a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, days after the energy pact. Moscow denies the claims, pointing fingers at Kyiv for drone strikes on Russian soil.
As Witkoff headed to the Kremlin, Trump met with him at the White House, a signal of how closely the president’s riding this. The White House said Trump’s team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, is prepping for follow-up talks in London on April 23, where Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg will join the fray. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Kyiv on April 22, said he’s ready to meet Trump at Pope Francis’ funeral later this week to keep the pressure on.
Putin’s offered to freeze the front line, according to reports from April 22, but details are murky. Witkoff’s job is to cut through the fog, but with both sides dug in, no one’s expecting miracles. The war’s already claimed countless lives, and the clock’s ticking.