US secretary of state reveals whether Trump will impose sanctions on Russia after deadline set for Putin expires

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has commented on the possibility of imposing sanctions against Russia following the deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine.

Friday 8 August marks the end of the 10-day deadline announced by Trump, after which the US president threatened to impose secondary sanctions on Russia.

When asked about the possibility of introducing secondary sanctions against Russia, Rubio said: "Well, that’s a decision the President will need to make here over the next 24 to 36 hours."

"A lot of it’ll depend on how talks – the works we’re going to be doing over the next couple of days – progress. And then, ultimately, it’ll be the President’s call in terms of whether he still thinks sanctions need to go in place or not in place pending this thing being moved forward on," Rubio said in an interview with Fox Business, published by the US State Department press service.

On Wednesday 6 August, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff held a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin which lasted about three hours.

The Kremlin stated that during the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, there was an exchange of "certain signals" regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Trump said that Witkoff's meeting with Putin had been "productive" and, without giving any details, stated that "great progress was made".