Russia is considering an “air truce” with Ukraine, ending its campaign of long-range drone and missile strikes against cities throughout country, as US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrives in Moscow on August 6 to meet with Russian leadership, a source familiar with the plan told Bloomberg.

The possible halt in missile strikes would be a potential concession by Russian President Vladimir Putin to US President Donald Trump to prevent him from imposing major sanctions against Russia after an August 8 deadline expires after which Trump has threatened 100% tariffs on Russian and similar secondary sanctions on Russia’s customers for its oil exports.

The White House also said it is considering imposing new sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers, which, if approved, would be the first sanctions imposed on Russia by the Trump administration since the president took office at the start of this year.

White House officials told reporters they believe the possibility of Putin halting the missile strikes is low, as Russia is currently making headway on the battlefield albeit at a high cost in human life. Russian forces have broken into the crucial city of Pokrovsk, a key logistic hub, where fighting is reportedly intense. At the same time, Ukraine is running low on air defence ammo and Russia has taken the opportunity to pound Ukrainian defences with powerful missiles and increasingly sophisticate drones. Last week, a bridge in the heart of Kyiv was hit with an heavy FAB 3000 glide bomb completely destroying it. Ukraine has very limited defences against these powerful WWII-era modified gravity bombs that carry up to 3000kg of explosive.

Putin scaled up his missile attacks on Ukraine in May with a devastating missile barrage targeting Ukrainian cities and has more than quadrupled the number of daily drone and missile attacks since then in what has become a missile war. Russia massively outproduces Ukraine in terms of missile production, whereas Ukraine is entirely dependent on its Western allies for Patriot system ammo, the only effective defence it has against missile attacks.

The pressure on Ukraine recently increased after a new decoy drone was found on the battlefield made almost entirely of Chinese components. Just this week another drone was found made using Indian technology. The pressure on Ukraine has increased as Russia’s allies supply it with the components its needs to manufacture more weapons, while Ukraine’s western allies haggle over arms deals with the US.

On July 31, the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $852 bn defence spending bill, which includes $800 mn allocated to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), aimed at funding arms, intelligence, training, and equipment for Ukraine. However, this allocation is a fraction of the $61bn package  for Ukraine of funding and arms approved by the Biden administration a year earlier.

Trump is expected to present Russian President Vladimir Putin with “one last chance” to begin serious  negotiations to end his invasion of Ukraine during Witkoff’s meeting with Putin on August 6.