Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, United States special envoy Steve Witkoff has said.
President Donald Trump’s envoy made the claim in a TV interview late on Monday, following “compelling” talks with Putin in Saint Petersburg last week. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that agreeing terms on a deal is “not easy”, while Ukraine and its European allies have called on Washington not to be deceived by Moscow’s delay tactics regarding a ceasefire.
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large,” Witkoff told Fox News in an interview following his meeting with the Russian leader on Friday, acknowledging that “it took a while for us to get to this place” but that he saw a deal “emerging” after five hours of talks.
He also noted a potential to “reshape” the Russian-United States relationship through “commercial opportunities” that would bring stability to the region.
Friday’s meeting was the third between Russia and the US since Trump returned to the White House in January, claiming he could solve the conflict within 24 hours.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on achieving a ceasefire, despite Ukraine agreeing to US proposals.
Russia, however, has offered no key concessions, while continuing to bombard its neighbour. On Sunday, it launched one of the deadliest attacks of the war on the Ukrainian city of Sumy – a move Trump called a “mistake”, without elaborating.
Both sides have accused each other of breaching a US-brokered agreement to pause attacks on each other’s energy facilities.
Blame game
Despite Witkoff’s optimistic report, Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper published on Monday that it is “not easy” to agree on “key components” of a peace deal.
He did, however, concede that the Trump administration is trying to understand the “root cause” of the conflict, which he said was triggered by “the actions of Washington and Brussels” in having “brought the current regime to power in Ukraine”.
Trump, who has alarmed Ukraine by taking on many points of Russia’s agenda regarding the war, supported that viewpoint on Monday as he told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former US President Joe Biden were responsible for starting the conflict, alongside Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump said there were “millions of people dead because of three people”.
“Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelenskyy,” he said, going on to dismiss the Ukrainian leader’s attempts to defend his country by obtaining missiles.
“When you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
‘Mocking your goodwill’
Relations between Trump and Zelenskyy have been tense since the US president stunned the world by opening talks with Russia in February – a move critics say gave the Kremlin an edge on terms.
Negotiations on a deal that would give the US priority access to lucrative minerals in Ukraine got off to a rocky start after Trump and Zelenskyy had a blazing argument in the Oval Office six weeks ago.
Ukraine has been alarmed by its omission from the talks between the US and Russia.
“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” Zelenskyy said in an interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes programme broadcast on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Kyiv’s European allies have urged Trump and his team not to be taken in by Russia’s delay tactics in the ceasefire talks.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Monday that he hoped that, following the attack on Sumy, Trump and his administration would see that Putin was “mocking their goodwill”.
