By Erin Banco, Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Negotiators sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week were less than 48 hours, and negotiators sent by last week in Washington, U.S. and Moscow host Steve Witkoff, meeting with Moscow host, sat down with Donald Trump and at the White House with Donald Trump.
Witkov said the fastest way to carry out a ceasefire in Ukraine is to support a strategy that will illegally annex four eastern Ukraine regions in 2022, two U.S. officials and five familiar people told Reuters.
Witkoff made this public last month in a podcast interview with conservative media figure Tucker Carlson, but Kiev repeatedly rejected it, with some U.S. and European officials seen as the biggest Russian demand.
At the meeting with Trump, General Keith Kellogg, the special envoy of President Ukraine, delayed opposition to Vetkov, and although Ukraine was willing to negotiate certain terms related to the disputed land, it would never agree that the unilateral ownership of Russia would be attributed to the full ownership of Russia.
The meeting ended and there was no decision to change the U.S. strategy. Witkoff went to Russia to meet Putin on Friday.
Officials in the Trump administration are increasingly violating how to break the deadlock between Ukraine and Russia, with Vitkoff and Kellogg (who are more conducive to direct support for Ukraine – among U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter and four Western diplomats who have come into contact with government officials, say the most direct support for Ukraine – disagree with the best forward.
The Witkov office, the National Security Council, the State Department, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
During a break with normal security procedures, Vikov invited Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev to have dinner at his personal residence before the White House meeting after the Russian invasion.
This triggered an alarm within the White House and the State Department, according to two familiar people. U.S. officials avoid receiving officials from Russia (with complex intelligence capabilities).
Dinner was rescheduled, but was held at the White House.
Witkoff, an old friend of Trump, who helped secure a major diplomatic victory for the president, has received some support from Republican Ukrainian skeptics, but his proposal has caused anger among other Republicans who believe the administration is too stunning to Moscow.
According to a familiar phone call, some Republicans on Capitol Hill are so concerned about Witkov's obvious pro-Russian stance in Carlson's interview that several claimed that national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were complained afterwards.
Since taking office in January, Trump has overturned U.S. foreign policy and urged Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, while relaxing many of the measures taken by the Biden administration to Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbors in 2022.
According to some U.S. and European officials, some officials are concerned that as Witkoff follows Trump's strategy, the Russians are taking advantage of his lack of experience at the negotiating table.
“Vicov must go, Rubio must take his place,” a letter to Eric Levine, a major Republican donor, on March 26. The letter was sent to a group, including Republican donors, and was seen by Reuters, after an interview with Carlson and Fox News appearance, and criticized Witkoff for praising Putin.
Trump repeatedly said he wanted to hold a ceasefire in Ukraine by May, believing that the United States must end a conflict that has caused hundreds of thousands and risked direct confrontation between the United States and nuclear-weapon Russia.
But two partial ceasefire deals – one about energy infrastructure and one in the Black Sea – have stalled and the president is frustrated by the lack of progress.
Widow's role is growing
Witkoff plays a central role in the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Even before Trump took office, Witkoff helped secure a long-standing Gaza ceasefire (which has since been dissolved) and later negotiated the return of U.S. citizen Marc Fogel from Russia.
He traveled to Russia to meet Putin on Friday and is expected to negotiate with Iran in the Middle East, effectively leading another priority national security mission.
Witkoff first made public the idea of handing over four Ukrainian regions to four Russian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhiya and Helsen.
“They speak Russian,” he said of the eastern region. “There are a lot of referendums and the vast majority of people show that they want to be under Russian rule.”
Witkov's comments shocked many U.S. national security officials – the special envoy's remarks reflected the remarks of Russian officials. Western governments called the hasty referendum a falsehood and promised not to recognize their results.
A few days after Carlson's interview, the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, published an album titled “Steve Witkoff Takes Around the Kremlin.”
Democrats also put pressure on them.
“Witkoff and Trump committed diplomatic crimes: they expressed a full deal in despair,” said Ned, former State Department spokesman for President Joe Biden.
Witkoff has many defenders in the administration, saying he feels unfair to foreign policy officials who hold hawkish views in a Republican Party that increasingly abandons foreign intervention. According to multiple people familiar with their relationship, Vikov and Trump still maintain a strong personal relationship.
“Envoy Witkoff brings a lot of private sector negotiation experience and urgency to the diplomatic phase, and we've seen the results in just a few weeks,” National Security Adviser Mike Mike Waltz told Mike the Hill in a statement.
Allies see pressure to get results
For our allies, the debate and the lack of progress in peace agreements helped the United States lack a clear plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Two European officials recently established contacts with the government, saying the pressure on the negotiation team to achieve results quickly has made them worried that the United States may accept not only the move that could undermine Ukraine, but also the European's own safe buildings.
Officials who asked not to be named said they did not feel at ease from the discussion and did not feel that the U.S. has a clear ultimate goal.
Despite frequent dialogue between Witkoff and Kellogg, the government has not yet established a coordinated Ukrainian policy process. Contrary to standard practice, the National Security Council chaired only one meeting of principals (including the President’s Supreme National Security Adviser), which one person familiar with the matter said, causing even more confusion within the government and allies in Europe in the direction of European peace talks.
Two senior Western diplomats who remain in touch with the government said they believe Washington lacks a “clear plan” on how to move forward and what to do if Russia continues to delay.
“Sometimes we sometimes hear contradictory things in different parts of the government,” one of the diplomats said in anonymous manner. “This also adds to the feeling that there is no real plan here.”
(Reports by Erin Banco, Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk; other reports by John Irish in Paris and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Editors by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)
