Trump envoy Witkoff plans Moscow visit this week to meet Putin

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is planning a visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, two people briefed on the plans said on March 10.

Mr Witkoff, who is officially Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, has played a growing role in efforts to bring about an end to the three-year-old Ukraine war.

The people, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Bloomberg News report that Mr Witkoff would be going to Moscow for talks with Putin.

One of the sources said Mr Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow this week.

Mr Trump has expressed a desire to meet Mr Putin and, since taking office in January, has pursued an effort to reverse the icy relations with Russia of the previous Biden administration.

Mr Witkoff met Mr Putin in Moscow in February and

brought back American schoolteacher Marc Fogel,

who had been sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison after being detained for holding medically prescribed marijuana.

US Secretary of State

Marco Rubio is leading a delegation to Saudi Arabia

for talks on March 11 with Ukrainian officials about the war. The US planned to use the meeting in part to determine whether Ukraine is willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war, two US officials said. REUTERS