US special envoy Witkoff lands in Moscow

• US envoy to meet Russian leadership Wednesday.
• Trump demands ceasefire or promises fresh sanctions.
• Ceasefire deadline set for August 8 by Trump.

MOSCOW: US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow and was greeted at the airport by Russia's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a source involved in the preparation of the visit told Reuters on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump, who warned that he would impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine before Friday, had said earlier that Witkoff might be travelling to Moscow this week.

A source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Tuesday that Witkoff would meet with Russian leadership on Wednesday.

Improving Russia-US relations will take time

Improving relations between Russia and the United States will take time, Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian TASS state news agency in remarks published on Wednesday.

"There is, of course, inertia in this process," Peskov told TASS, referring to the prolonged absence of a meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

"It takes time for efforts to bring bilateral relations back onto a normal track."

TASS reported that for the first time in modern Russian history more than six months have passed since a new US president's inauguration without a summit with the Russian leader.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian leadership in yet another diplomatic effort by Washington to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

Russia-US ties have been marked by escalating tensions in recent weeks, with Trump saying he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in "the appropriate regions" in response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Trump has also issued an ultimatum to Putin, demanding a ceasefire in the war that Russia started, with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022, and a formal peace agreement by August 8.

Trump threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil - of which the biggest are China and India - unless Putin agrees to a ceasefire in the war.