Vladimir Putin wants an end to the Ukraine war says Donald Trump ’s special envoy Steve Witkoff who believes “we might be on the verge”. Witkoff met with the Russian leader in St Petersburg and went with the mission to press Putin to accept a truce last Friday.
But since then Russia has continued to attack Ukraine including the bombing of Sumy where people had gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass and at least 34 were killed – it was the second large-scale assault to claim civilian lives in just over a week.
Back in the United States and Witkoff said he is still confident that Russia will agree to an end to the violence and that Putin is open to “permanent peace”. Trump repeatedly claimed that he would end the war within 24 hours during the presidential election but while there have been talks, the fighting has continued.
“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. “It took a while for us to get to this place.”
He went on to say that it was after five hours of talks with Russian counterparts that he could see a deal “emerging”. Referring to what would happen to Ukrainian land occupied by Russia he said: “This peace deal is about these so-called five territories, but there’s so much more to it.”
Witkoff also added that beyond ending the war he believes that a positive relationship could develop between the United States and Russia. He said that he saw “a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region too.”
At the same time, though, Ukraine’s European allies have promised billions of pounds to help Kyiv keep fighting Russia’s invasion.
While Moscow and Kyiv both agreed in principle last month to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire, they issued conflicting statements soon after their separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia.
They differed on the start time of halting strikes, and alleged near-immediate breaches by the other side. Russia and Ukraine’s top diplomats have blamed each other for the failure of the 30-day ceasefire since Witkoff met with Putin.
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“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry also told state media on Saturday that Moscow has been sharing intelligence with the US regarding more than 60 supposed breaches of the deal by Kyiv.
But his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha fiercely contested that claim, saying Russia had launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 (exploding) drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians,” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes. “This clearly shows to the world who wants peace and who wants war,” he said.
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