US envoy meets Putin in Russia for Ukraine ceasefire talks

US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday to tout Washington's plan to settle the Ukraine conflict, a day after Donald Trump issued a direct appeal to the Russian president to halt his offensive. Trump has been trying to broker a truce between Moscow and Kyiv to end three years of fighting, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite several rounds of negotiation. Russia launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in 2022, hoping to take the