White House Special Envoy Witkoff says deal to secure Ukraine peace getting closer
by Paul Godfrey · UPIApril 15 (UPI) -- U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said he was confident a deal with Russia to secure a permanent peace was "emerging" because he had managed to pin down President Vladimir Putin on what his demands were in their latest round of negotiations.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday night, three days after holding five hours of talks with Putin in Moscow -- their third encounter in two months -- Witkoff said it was only as their meeting was coming to a close that "we actually came up with what Putin's request is" to enter into a lasting peace agreement.
"Towards the end, we actually came up with -- I'm going to say finally, but I don't mean it in the way that we were waiting; I mean it in the way that it took a while for us to get to this place -- what Putin's request is to get to, have a permanent peace. Beyond a cease-fire, we got an answer to that."
Witkoff said that while the deal pivoted on five so-called territories [the part Russian-controlled Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, plus Crimea] there was much more to it, including security protocols, questions around NATO and Article 5 security guarantees, and that it came with a "lot of detail attached to it."
"It's a complicated situation rooted in some real problematic things happening between the two countries and I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large," he said.
Witkoff added that he believed there was also a possibility to "reshape the Russia-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities" that he said would provide a basis for real stability in the region.
"Partnerships create stability," he said.
However, other officials in Trump's inner circle have been counseling extreme caution when it comes to placing Russian-occupied Ukrainian provinces on the table as long as Putin fails to demonstrate he is acting in good faith in efforts to get a cease-fire.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Envoy for Ukraine Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg were among those urging greater skepticism in negotiations with Putin and a tougher stance on his demand to retain territory taken by force.
Moscow has yet to sign onto a U.S. proposal for a 30-day cease-fire that Kyiv agreed to on the spot, instead continuing to launch deadly attacks on Ukrainian civilians, most recently on Sunday when at least 34 people were killed and 117 injured when two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of Sumy.
Ramping up sanctions is said to be among the options the state and treasury departments were exploring for when Trump loses patience with Putin.