KEY POINTS
- Trump’s special envoy says Putin is open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine
- Witkoff met Putin in Saint Petersburg last week to discuss the Ukraine war
- The US envoy claims a peace deal is “emerging”
- The Kremlin said it is too early to expect any concrete outcomes from US-Russia talks
- Lavrov warns agreeing key elements of a deal is still difficult
- Russia demands Ukraine drop NATO ambitions
- Trump blames Putin, Biden, and Zelensky for the Ukraine war
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, following talks in Saint Petersburg last week seeking to end the more than three-year war.
Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.
On Friday, Witkoff met with Putin in Saint Petersburg — their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House in January.
The US President’s special envoy, during a Fox News interview televised late on Monday, said he believes a peace deal is “emerging” after what he described as a “compelling meeting” with Putin and two of his senior advisers — Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev.
“Putin’s request is to have a permanent peace here. So beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,” Witkoff said. “I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.”
He added that there was potential to “reshape” the US-Russia relationship through “very compelling commercial opportunities,” which, he argued, could also contribute to regional stability.
Despite Witkoff’s optimistic tone, progress towards a formal ceasefire has been limited. Ukraine has reportedly agreed to certain US proposals, but Russia has refused to offer significant concessions.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of violating a US-brokered understanding to refrain from attacking each other’s energy infrastructure.
However, the Kremlin on Sunday said it is too early to expect any concrete outcomes from renewed US-Russia contacts.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with Kommersant newspaper published on Monday, warned that agreeing on the “key components” of a settlement remains difficult.
He noted that Russia’s position, as outlined by President Putin in June 2024, includes Ukraine dropping its NATO membership ambitions and withdrawing troops from all four Ukrainian regions currently controlled by Moscow.
“We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like, which we have never rejected, and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap,” Lavrov said.
“It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed.”
Lavrov also said Russia would no longer allow itself to become economically or technologically dependent on the West, citing sanctions imposed during President Joe Biden’s administration as having “destroyed the globalisation of the world economy.”
“We’re talking about the rights of the people who live on these lands. That is why these lands are dear to us. And we cannot give them up, allowing people to be kicked out of there,” Lavrov said.
President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to end what he has called the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, claiming he could resolve the conflict within 24 hours.
On Monday, he blamed “three people” for the war — Putin, Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Let’s say Putin number one, let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky,” Trump said during remarks at the White House.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
The comments are likely to add to tensions with Kyiv, which has expressed frustration at being sidelined in direct US-Russia negotiations.
Speaking to CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Zelensky urged the US administration to visit Ukraine before making decisions about its future.
“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.
European allies of Ukraine have also voiced concern. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Monday warned Washington not to be misled by Russia’s tactics.
“I hope that after the attack on Sumy, Trump and his administration will see that Putin is mocking their goodwill,” he said.
