Donald Trump broke his silence on a possible meeting with Vladimir Putin, hours after reports about a summit started to circulate. Addressing his country and the media in a press conference at the White House, Mr Trump said on Wednesday night there is a “very good prospect” of a historic face-to-face taking place with Putin.

Mr Trump’s press conference, held in the Oval Office, was focused on the multi-billion investment being made by tech giant Apple in the US. However, as he was taking questions from the media, the US President was asked about reports of a summit with Putin. He said: “There is a very good prospect that we will [meet].”

The news comes as earlier today Trump delivered two major blows to Russia in just a matter of hours, even as reports emerged that the US President may be open to meeting Vladimir Putin as soon as next week.

On Wednesday, the White House confirmed it still intends to follow through on its threat of secondary sanctions against Moscow. This Friday, August 8, is the deadline set by President Trump for Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Washington had already warned that it would hit the Russian economy hard if Moscow failed to clearly pursue peace in Ukraine. Today, the White House reaffirmed its plan to enforce rules preventing third parties from trading with countries facing Russian sanctions—measures set to come into force in just two days. This announcement came despite Mr Trump’s comments that his special envoy Steve Witkoff’s recent meeting with Putin “went well”.

Posting on Truth Social this afternoon, Mr Trump wrote: “My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Just hours earlier, Mr Trump had labelled Russia an “extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy. He made this declaration as he signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India over its imports of Russian oil.

The US President explained: “I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to impose an additional ad valorem duty on imports of articles of India, which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.”

By targeting Russian oil revenues, the US hopes to significantly hinder the Kremlin’s ability to finance its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.