Trump could take action against Russia by end of month if peace talks fail Sources tell Axios

If no ceasefire is reached by the end of the month, President Trump could impose additional sanctions on Russia, either by using executive powers or by urging Congress to pass new sanctions legislation, according to a source familiar with the matter, quoted by Axios.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking last week at the NATO summit in Brussels, emphasized the urgency, saying, "We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are."

This comes after U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff hosted Dmitriev in Washington last week in a bid to break the deadlock. Ukraine has already agreed to Trump's proposal for an unconditional ceasefire and has given the green light for a smaller-scale maritime ceasefire. However, Russia has made additional demands, including the lifting of certain U.S. sanctions.

"We are making progress. We hope we are getting relatively close to a deal between Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on April 10.

In the latest developments, the U.S. and Russia successfully executed a prisoner exchange deal, which saw the release of dual U.S.-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina. This exchange was the result of a previous meeting between Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.

Trump expressed his gratitude to Putin for releasing Karelina, revealing that UFC CEO Dana White had personally requested her release, as she is the girlfriend of a UFC fighter. Following this, U.S. and Russian diplomats met once again on April 10 in Istanbul to continue discussions on normalizing relations between the two countries.