The biggest obstacle to resolving Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine is the status of Crimea and the four mainland Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia, said US special envoy Steve Witkoff, calling them \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d in peace talks. <\/p>\n
In a long interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, Witkoff \u2013 who also revealed Russia\u2019s President Putin had commissioned a portrait of Donald Trump and sent it to him \u2013 said the administration was making progress \u201cthat no one thought was possible\u201d with Russia, but that issues of territory still need ironing out. <\/p>\n
The four mainland regions, which Witkoff appeared to struggle to name and needed prompting from Carlson, were illegally annexed during Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion and Kyiv vehemently opposes giving them up. <\/p>\n
The Kremlin has since staged referenda on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Kyiv and the international community decried as a propaganda exercise, but which Witkoff claimed was evidence of their desire to split from Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re Russian-speaking,\u201d Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. \u201cThere have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.\u201d <\/p>\n
Witkoff, Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy who also plays a key role in talks with Russia, said the \u201cconstitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede\u2026 with regard to territory\u201d had become \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d during negotiations. Talks are set to resume Monday in Saudi Arabia, with US officials set to meet officials from both Russia and Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?\u201d Witkoff asked. \u201cCan (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict.\u201d <\/p>\n
Zelensky stressed last weekend that Ukraine\u2019s position \u201cis that we do not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian.\u201d <\/p>\n
The US raised the issue during talks with Ukrainian delegates in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Zelensky said, adding that he hopes the question can be resolved during later peace talks, rather than discussions over an initial ceasefire. \u201cIt is dragging out the process for a long, long time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Witkoff said he was impressed by how \u201cgracious\u201d the Russian leader has been during the pair\u2019s discussions, praising him as \u201csmart\u201d and \u201cstraightforward.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before meeting Putin in Moscow, Witkoff said someone in the Trump administration warned him to \u201cwatch it, because he\u2019s an ex-KGB guy,\u201d referring to Putin\u2019s former career in the Soviet Union\u2019s security agency. <\/p>\n
Witkoff said he downplayed the person\u2019s fears, saying Putin\u2019s background in the agency was a measure of his intelligence. \u201cIn the old days, the only people who went into the KGB were the smartest people in the nation\u2026 He\u2019s a super smart guy,\u201d he recalled saying. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t regard Putin as a bad guy,\u201d Witkoff said, saying it was \u201cgracious\u201d of the Russian leader to receive him in Moscow for talks earlier this month. <\/p>\n
That meeting \u201cgot personal,\u201d he said, recalling how Putin \u201chad commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist,\u201d which Witkoff took home to the president. <\/p>\n
Witkoff said also that, following the assassination attempt against Trump in September, Putin said that he \u201cwent to his local church and met with his priest and prayed\u201d for Trump, \u201cnot because he\u2026 could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump was \u201cclearly touched\u201d by Putin\u2019s story and the portrait, Witkoff said. <\/p>\n
Witkoff implied that resolving the war in Ukraine could lead to cooperation on a broader range of issues, and that the two sides were thinking about \u201cintegrating their energy policies in the Arctic,\u201d sharing sea lanes, collaborating on artificial intelligence and sending liquefied natural gas \u201cinto Europe together.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWho doesn\u2019t want to have a world where Russia and the United States are doing, collaboratively, good things together?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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