Putin’s conversation with the USA “useful and constructive”

Shortly before US President Donald Trump’s ultimatum expired to Russia because of the Ukraine secretary, his special envoy Steve Witkoff once again held talks in Moscow. The Russian head of state Vladimir Putin received the negotiator for about three hours in the Kremlin. In the meantime, Trump announced punitive tariffs against India – because of oil transactions with Russia.

Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform that Witkoff had an “extremely productive” meeting with Putin. “Great progress was made.” Trump did not give details. He continued to write that he himself informed some of the European allies. Everyone agrees that the war had to be ended and one will work towards “in the next few days and weeks”.

According to Kiev, Trump informed the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj in the evening about the results of Witkoff’s negotiations in Moscow. According to Selenskyj, “European state leaders”, which were not named in more detail, were also switched on by the phone call. The details of the content have not been announced.

Putin’s foreign policy advisor Juri Uschakow said according to the state Russian news agency TASS that it was a useful and constructive conversation. Moscow received signals from the USA for the Ukraine War via Witkoff and conversely transmitted signals to Trump. Both sides did not provide any information about the content.

Meanwhile, Trump announced punitive tariffs against India. Actually, a deadline that the US President Putin had set is still running. A ceasefire between Russia and the Ukraine attacked by Moscow is to be reached within this period. The 10-day period began on July 29-after which Trump wanted to impose sanctions against Russia’s trading partner. India has now been named before the expiry, while no punitive tariffs have so far been familiar with China.

With his customs threat, the US President wants to further weaken the economic basis of the Kremlin by putting more pressure on large buyers of oil and gas-including China and India.

With the additional 25 percent, the sentence for India would double to a total of 50 percent at the end of August. According to the US government, the first 25 percent are already taking place on Thursday night (00:01 am local time)-they belong to a customs package against dozens of other countries.

Representatives of the governments and the industries of India and Russia discussed in parallel in New Delhi on progress in cooperation in various economic sectors such as mining, fertilizers and rail transport.

The war against Ukraine, ordered by Putin almost three and a half years ago, continued with undiminished hardness. According to the authorities, at least two people were killed in a Russian bomb attack on a holiday camp in the south of Ukraine. Another twelve people were injured in the attack near the big city of Saporischeschja, said Governor Iwan Fedorow on Telegram.

Militically, the meaning of this attack is zero, explained the Ukrainian President Selenskyj. “It is just cruelty that should flourish fear.” According to Ukrainian information, Russian attacks with drones and artillery at night were also damaged by commercial companies and a house in the neighboring area of Dnipropetrovsk.

In addition, according to the Russian military of Ukrainian information, a gas thickener station in the South Ukrainian region of Odessa is targeting. “The massive Russian drone attack on a key compression station of the Transbalcan route shows that Moscow uses all available means and levers to destroy the energy independence of the Europeans,” said Minister of Energy Switlana Hrynchuk in accordance with a message.

Due to this pipeline, liquefied gas from the USA, delivered via Greek terminals, and a first test quantity of Azerbaijanese natural gas have been pumped into Ukraine. The gas pipeline runs over Bulgaria and Romania. A Ukrainian drone attack in the early morning was based on Russian media reports against a tanker in the city of Brjansk.