US prepares for showdown talks with Putin this week
Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow on 'Wednesday or Thursday' to meet the Russian president, Mr Trump said.
His task is to 'get a deal where people stop getting killed', according to the US president.
Putin has already met Mr Witkoff four times in Moscow in an attempt to broker a peace deal.
But this trip to the Russian capital comes ahead of the shortened deadline set by Mr Trump for Putin to reach a ceasefire or face crippling new sanctions.
The US president has said the new measures could mean 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption.
'There'll be sanctions, but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions,' Mr Trump told reporters on Sunday.
Mr Trump also confirmed that US nuclear submarines are 'now in the region where they have to be' after he announced on Friday that two underwater vessels would be moved towards Russian waters.
'The answer is, they are in the region, yeah, where they have to be,' he said on Sunday.
The decision to move US nuclear submarines came in response to an escalating war of words online between Mr Trump and Russia's former president.
Dmitry Medvedev, a key Putin ally now on Russia's security council, had aggressively criticised Mr Trump's sanctions ultimatum and reminded him of the strength of Moscow's nuclear arsenal.
'Foolish and inflammatory statements'
Mr Trump said on social media that Medvedev's 'highly provocative statements' led him to dispatch the submarines 'just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that'.
It is not clear which nuclear submarines have been moved, but experts said it was likely to be nuclear-armed vessels. It is extremely rare for a US president to signal their movements, which are usually shrouded in secrecy.
In response, Medvedev, one of Russia's most outspoken anti-Western hawks who has long been at odds with Mr Trump, has stayed unusually quiet.
Noting his silence, Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said the reaction of the 'Russian drunk who had been threatening nuclear war' made it clear that 'Russia only understands one thing: strength'.
The shift in Washington's nuclear posture towards Russia reflects its growing frustration with Moscow over its intensifying bombardment of Ukraine.
Mr Trump, whose patience with Putin has worn thin, said he was 'disgusted' on Thursday by Russia's deadly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Putin's demands 'unchanged'
Russia fired a record number of drones in July, killing hundreds of civilians, while its forces grind forward in the country's east and have accelerated their gains for the fourth consecutive month, according to analysis.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said on Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were 'unchanged.'
He has demanded that Ukraine cede complete control of four regions that Moscow has invaded and claimed to have annexed – a demand that Kyiv says is tantamount to surrender.
It comes as Ukrainian drone attacks on Sunday sparked a massive fire at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
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