Less than 48 hours after having dinner with a negotiator sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington last week, Steve Witkoff, the United States' special envoy for talks with Moscow, sat down with US President Donald Trump at the White House and delivered a clear message, Reuters reports.
The quickest way to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine, Witkoff said, was to support a strategy that would give Russia the four eastern Ukrainian regions it has tried to illegally annex in 2022, two U.S. officials and five people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
It was a point that Witkoff had made before – and publicly in a podcast interview with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson last month – but one that Kiev has repeatedly rejected and which some American and European officials have dismissed as a maximalist Russian demand.
In a meeting with Trump, Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy for Ukraine, rebuffed Witkoff, saying that Ukraine, while willing to negotiate some terms regarding the disputed land, would never agree to unilaterally cede full ownership of the territories to Russia, two sources said.
The meeting ended without Trump making a decision to change US strategy.
Witkoff traveled to Russia on Friday to meet with Putin.
DON'T MISS IT
Trump administration officials are increasingly at odds over how to break the impasse between Ukraine and Russia, with Witkoff and Kellogg - who has advocated for more direct support for Ukraine - at odds over the best course to take, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter, as well as four Western diplomats in contact with administration officials.
Vitkoff's office, the National Security Council, the State Department, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Reuters writes that Vitkoff invited Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under US sanctions following the Russian invasion, to his personal residence for dinner before a meeting at the White House.
That has caused alarm at the White House and State Department, according to two people familiar with the situation. U.S. officials are avoiding hosting officials from Russia — which has sophisticated intelligence capabilities — in their homes.
The dinner was postponed and instead held at the White House.
Witkoff, a longtime Trump friend who helped secure key diplomatic victories for the US president, has won some support from Ukraine skeptics in the Republican Party, but his proposals have drawn the ire of other Republicans who believe the administration has swung too hard toward Moscow.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill were so concerned about Witkoff's apparent pro-Russian stance in the interview with Carlson that several called National Security Adviser Mike Volkz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to complain, a person familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters.
Since taking office in January, Trump has transformed US foreign policy, pressuring Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire while easing many of the measures taken by the Biden administration to punish Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.
Some U.S. and European officials are concerned that while Witkoff is following Trump's strategy, the Russians are taking advantage of his lack of experience at the negotiating table, according to two U.S. officials and more than a dozen other people familiar with the administration's inner workings, including Western diplomats.
"Witkoff must go, and Rubio must take his place," said a March 26 letter from Eric Levin, a major Republican donor. The letter, sent to a group that includes Republican donors and seen by Reuters, was written after an interview with Carlson and an appearance on Fox News, and criticizes Witkoff for praising Putin.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine by May, arguing that the US must end a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and risks a direct confrontation between the US and nuclear-armed Russia.
But two partial ceasefire agreements – one on energy infrastructure and one on the Black Sea – have stalled and the president has become frustrated with the lack of progress.
A bigger role for Vitkoff
Witkoff plays a central and broader role in the Trump administration's foreign policy. Even before Trump took office, Witkoff helped secure the long-sought ceasefire in Gaza and later negotiated the return of American citizen Mark Fogel from Russia.
He traveled to Russia on Friday to meet with Putin and is expected to be in the Middle East to talk with Iran on Saturday, effectively leading another top national security task.
Vitkoff first publicly floated the idea of handing over four Ukrainian regions to Russia - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson - in an interview with Carlson on March 21.
"They speak Russian," he said of Ukraine's eastern territories. "There were referendums in which the overwhelming majority of people indicated they wanted to be under Russian rule," he said.
Witkoff's comments shocked many US national security officials - the special envoy's rhetoric echoed that of Russian officials. Western governments quickly called the hastily organized referendums fraudulent and vowed not to recognize their results.
Just a few days after the interview with Carlson, the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, published an article titled "Steve Witkoff Sides with the Kremlin."
Democrats also got involved.
"Witkoff and Trump have committed the cardinal sin of diplomacy: they have exposed their desperation for a deal," said Ned Price, a former State Department spokesman under President Joseph Biden.
Witkoff has many defenders within the administration, who say he has been unfairly maligned by hawkish foreign policy officials in the Republican Party, which has increasingly turned its back on foreign intervention. Witkoff and Trump continue to maintain a strong personal relationship, according to several people familiar with the matter.
"Special Envoy Witkoff brought a wealth of private sector negotiating experience and urgency to the diplomatic phase, and we are already seeing results in just a few weeks," National Security Adviser Mike Walz said in a statement to The Hill.
Pressure to get results
For U.S. allies, the arguments and lack of progress toward a peace agreement contribute to the feeling that the U.S. lacks a clear plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Two European officials who have had recent contact with the administration said there is pressure on the negotiating team to get results quickly, which has them concerned that the US could not only accept moves that could undermine Ukraine, but also Europe's own security architecture.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they have not abandoned the talks and do not believe there are clear end goals on the American side.
Despite frequent conversations between Witkoff and Kellogg, the administration has not established a coordinated Ukraine policy process. Contrary to normal practice, the National Security Council has hosted only one directors’ meeting — a meeting that includes all or most of the president’s top national security advisers — on the issue, a person familiar with the matter said, leading to greater confusion within the administration and among allies in Europe about the direction of peace talks.
Two senior Western diplomats in contact with the administration said they believed Washington lacked a "clear plan" on how to move forward and what to do if Russia continued to delay.
"Sometimes we hear contradictory things from different parts of the administration," said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "That also adds to the feeling that there is no real plan here," he said.
Bonus video:
