Trump’s Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin for 4th Time, Kremlin Says There Was Progress

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with US President Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) before a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 25 April 2025. (EPA/Kristina Kormilitsyna / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with US President Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) before a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 25 April 2025. (EPA/Kristina Kormilitsyna / Sputnik / Kremlin)
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Trump’s Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin for 4th Time, Kremlin Says There Was Progress

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with US President Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) before a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 25 April 2025. (EPA/Kristina Kormilitsyna / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with US President Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) before a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 25 April 2025. (EPA/Kristina Kormilitsyna / Sputnik / Kremlin)

US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow on Friday to discuss the US plan to end the Ukraine war, and the Kremlin said the two sides' positions had moved closer.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the meeting, described it as constructive and very useful.

"This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues," he told reporters.

"As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine."

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which started in February 2022.

There was no immediate comment from Witkoff on the outcome of the meeting.

Witkoff has emerged as Washington's key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, now well into its fourth year, and has already had three long meetings with the Kremlin leader.

His latest trip follows talks this week at which Ukrainian and European officials pushed back against some of the US proposals for how to settle the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.



Libyan ICC War Crimes Suspect Arrested in Germany

Police in the German state of Thuringia. Reuters file photo
Police in the German state of Thuringia. Reuters file photo
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Libyan ICC War Crimes Suspect Arrested in Germany

Police in the German state of Thuringia. Reuters file photo
Police in the German state of Thuringia. Reuters file photo

German authorities have arrested a Libyan war crimes suspect accused of being a senior official at a notorious prison where inmates were routinely tortured and sometimes sexually abused, the International Criminal Court said on Friday.

Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri, alleged to have been a member of the Special Deterrence Force armed group during Libya's civil war, was arrested on Wednesday, German authorities said, Reuters reported.

The ICC said he would remain in German custody, pending the completion of national proceedings.

Prosecutors at the ICC accuse Al Hishri of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape from February 2015 until early 2020, a period during which he was allegedly one of the most senior officials in the Mitiga prison.

According to the prosecution, Mitiga was the largest detention facility in western Libya, where thousands of detainees were held in cramped cells without basic hygiene and were systematically subjected to brutal interrogations and torture.

Men and women held there also faced sexual violence including rape, the prosecution said.

It is a critical time for the ICC. Its prosecutor and four judges are facing US sanctions in retaliation for an arrest warrant it issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. A number of European ICC member states, including Germany, have also criticized the warrant.

In addition to the sanctions, the ICC is also operating without its chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who

stepped aside temporarily two months ago as he faced a probe by United Nations investigators into alleged sexual misconduct.

Khan denies the allegations, and his two deputy prosecutors are running the office in his absence.

In a statement on Friday, the office of the prosecutor said it expected Al Hishri to be transferred to The Hague and added that it stood ready to start his trial.

"This development is so needed at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the field of accountability generally and at the ICC specifically," Kip Hale, an attorney who documented crimes in Libya for the UN, told Reuters.

"Yet, it is most important for the victims of the many atrocity crimes committed at Mitiga prison," he added.

Italy arrested another Libyan ICC suspect, Osama Elmasry Njeem, in January but subsequently returned him to Tripoli, saying the arrest warrant contained mistakes and inaccuracies. He was also accused of crimes committed against detainees in Mitiga prison.

His release sparked outrage among Italian opposition parties and triggered a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and several other government members.

The court has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the outbreak of its civil war in 2011, following a referral by the UN Security Council.