The Ukrainian leader has claimed that Steve Witkoff’s rhetoric is dangerous
US President Donald Trump’s key negotiator, Steve Witkoff, has been spreading “nonsense” about Ukraine’s territories, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said.
Although Witkoff is Trump’s Middle East envoy, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin three times this year in an effort to help broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Moscow. The diplomat mentioned that he had discussed Russian territorial demands, which angered Zelensky.
“I believe Mr. Witkoff has adopted the strategy of the Russian side. I think this is very dangerous, as he is – wittingly or unwittingly – spreading Russian narratives,” Zelensky said on Thursday. He added that Witkoff had “no mandate” to discuss potential territorial changes.
“That’s why I don’t really understand what he’s saying. We’ve heard this before – this is Mr. Putin’s nonsense. I didn’t expect that he would have certain people in civilized countries repeating these narratives. That’s why I don’t take this seriously,” Zelensky said, according to the news website Telegraf.
Zelensky reiterated that Kiev will “never recognize any temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.”
Witkoff spoke with Putin for more than four hours in St. Petersburg on April 11. The diplomat told reporters after the meeting that a potential peace deal hinged on “these so-called five territories.”
“It’s a complicated situation rooted in some real problematic things happening between the two countries,” Witkoff told Fox News. He remained optimistic that the Trump administration would broker a permanent ceasefire.
In 2014, Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and become part of Russia following a Western-backed coup in Kiev. The Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, did the same in September 2022. Russia demands that Ukraine pull its troops from the parts of these regions it still controls and definitively renounce its territorial claims.
Moscow also insists that Ukraine must drop its plans to join NATO and become a permanently neutral state.
Last month, the US brokered a 30-day moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure. However, both sides have accused each other of violating the accord. Kiev has broken the energy truce more than 80 times since it was announced on March 18, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
