U.S. Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff has informed President Donald Trump that giving Moscow "possession" of 4 occupied Ukrainian areas can be the quickest approach to obtain a ceasefire, Reuters reported on April 11, citing two unnamed U.S. officers and 5 different undisclosed sources.
In line with Reuters, Witkoff conveyed this proposal to U.S. President Donald Trump after assembly with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Washington in early April.
The information got here as Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg to debate a doable path towards a settlement in Ukraine.
In line with Reuters's sources, Trump administration officers are more and more divided on methods to break the impasse in Russia's conflict in opposition to Ukraine, with Witkoff and U.S. Particular Envoy Keith Kellogg disagreeing on the perfect course ahead.
Kellogg has argued that Ukraine would by no means comply with unilaterally cede complete possession of the territories to Russia, Reuters reported.
In a March interview with American far-right political commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff brazenly parroted Russian propaganda concerning Ukraine's occupied territories.
Witkoff claimed that almost all of individuals in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories had participated in referendums and "indicated that they wish to be below Russian rule."
"Witkoff should go, and (U.S. Secretary of State Marco) Rubio should take his place," in keeping with a March 26 letter from Eric Levine, a significant Republican donor, cited by Reuters. The letter, despatched to a gaggle together with Republican donors, was written after the Carlson interview and criticized Witkoff for praising Putin.
Some Republican lawmakers have been involved about Witkoff's pro-Russia stance within the Carlson interview and known as Rubio and Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz to complain, in keeping with one of many sources.
Within the interview, Witkoff referred to the Russian sham vote on the annexation of Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts held in September 2022.
The swiftly organized "referendums" have been held at gunpoint within the Russian-controlled elements of the areas, with widespread voter intimidation and troopers going door to door with poll packing containers.
The so-called "referendums" contradicted worldwide, Ukrainian and even Russian legislation and have been acknowledged solely by two nations — Russia and North Korea, each of which have little information of free elections.
Moscow illegally declared the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in addition to the partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts eight years later.
The Trump administration has already signaled it expects Kyiv to make territorial concessions as a part of a doable peace deal, calling a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders "unrealistic."
The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent