Kyiv and Moscow growing frustrated with Trump envoy Witkoff as peace talks stall - Kyiv Independent
Officials in both Kyiv and Moscow are growing increasingly frustrated with US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s role in negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, while several efforts are underway behind the scenes to sideline him, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing people familiar with the talks.
Ukrainian officials have questioned Witkoff’s understanding of the war and his approach to diplomacy, while Russian officials increasingly blame him for failures in negotiations and for Washington’s inability to pressure Ukraine into territorial concessions, according to the report.
One person who attended a round of trilateral talks said Witkoff sometimes left negotiations without telling other participants where he was going.
“He’s more into restaurants and other stuff,” the person told the Kyiv Independent. “It really looks like the guy is not interested at all. He could leave the scene and go for a short walk.”
Ukrainian officials have also raised concerns about Witkoff’s understanding of territorial issues at the heart of the negotiations.
During an April meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed Witkoff a piece of paper marked “3+2,” referring to five Ukrainian regions discussed as part of potential territorial concessions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, as well as Crimea. Witkoff took the paper back to Washington.
The issue resurfaced ahead of last year’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Witkoff attended a meeting with Putin without a US interpreter and instead relied on a Kremlin translator, breaking traditional diplomatic protocol.
Afterward, Witkoff told US President Donald Trump that Putin was prepared to discuss an arrangement under which Ukraine would withdraw from parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts while Russia would pull back from occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.
According to the Kyiv Independent’s source, however, Putin had not offered such concessions and Witkoff had misunderstood his “3+2” position. Ukrainian and European officials reacted with disbelief when briefed on Witkoff’s account.
The discrepancy became apparent as preparations for the Alaska summit progressed and it emerged that Putin was not prepared to make the territorial concessions Witkoff had described.
The Kyiv Independent also reported that several separate efforts are now underway to sideline Witkoff and weaken his close relationship with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Despite growing frustration with the envoy, Trump remains reluctant to remove his longtime friend from the negotiating process.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly rejected the Kyiv Independent’s reporting as “fake news nonsense,” saying Trump and Witkoff were “working incredibly hard” to end the war and that the envoy speaks almost daily with representatives of both sides.
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