Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation said he believes the United States, Ukraine, and Russia are close to a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine. "I believe Russia and the US and Ukraine actually quite close to a diplomatic solution," Kirill Dmitriev said on CNN on October 24. Dmitriev confirmed earlier that he is in the United States for a long-planned meeting. He did not say with whom he would be meeting. US news reports said he would meet Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami on October 25. TASS quoted Dmitriev as saying he would also meet other people without naming them. US President Donald Trump hit Russia's two biggest oil companies with sanctions this week to press Russia to end its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US Treasury Department announced on October 22 that it was sanctioning state-controlled Rosneft and privately owned LUKoil , whose exports go a long way toward filling the Kremlin's coffers. "These are very big -- against their two big oil companies," Trump said, describing the sanctions as "tremendous." A day later, Brussels targeted Rosneft and Gazpromneft, another major oil company that is a subsidiary of state-controlled gas giant Gazprom. Dmitriev said the sanctions are not such a big issue, telling CNN that Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will never act under pressure and the sanctions will lead to higher gasoline prices in the United States while Russia just sell less oil at a higher price. "So I think the real issue is how to continue a dialog how to have a peaceful resolution to the crisis while having realistic solutions rather than put forward unrealistic solutions," Dmitriev said.