Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expected the US president to speak with Vladimir Putin this week, saying that the Russian president “accepts the philosophy” of Trump’s ceasefire and peace terms.
Witkoff told CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week were “positive” and “solution-based”. He declined to confirm when asked whether Putin’s demands included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk; international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian; limits on Ukraine’s ability to mobilize; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign peacekeepers.
Putin said on Thursday that he supported a truce but outlined numerous details that need to be negotiated before the deal can be completed. The Russian president said he was open to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US but offered vague terms for his support, raising questions about what the Kremlin wants.
Witkoff declined to describe Russian terms. He said US envoys “had narrowed the differences” between Ukraine and Russian negotiators, and he would meet Trump on Sunday to discuss “how to narrow the differences even further”.
The discussions, Witkoff added, included Ukraine, Russia and European stakeholder countries including France, Britain, Norway and Finland, as well as other elements “that would be encompassed in a ceasefire”.
Trump, he said, was being updated about the discussions as they happened. “He is involved with every important decision here and I expect that there will be a call between the [US and Russian] presidents this week.”
Witkoff also said the US was continuing to engage and have conversations with Ukraine, and “advising them on everything we’re thinking about”.
Ukraine agreed to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire at talks last week in Saudi Arabia, and since his disastrous meeting in the White House a fortnight ago, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been trying hard to portray Kyiv as amenable to Trump’s plans, while suggesting Putin is merely playing for time and not serious about negotiating a deal.
Zelenskyy has agreed to put discussions of territorial questions and of possible security guarantees on hold until after a ceasefire takes effect and more detailed discussions are held. Previously, he had insisted that a ceasefire would only make sense if western partners would provide Ukraine with some kind of security guarantee.
Trump has made it clear that no US guarantees are on the table, while the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has been attempting to rally a coalition of other western allies to put together a possible peacekeeping contingent that could be deployed to Ukraine after a deal. However, it is not clear that such a mission could function without US backing, and Russian officials have repeatedly ruled out accepting any deal involving western boots on the ground in Ukraine.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 1,000 drones and 1,300 guided air bombs on Ukrainian territory over the past week. “This is not what someone who wants a quick end to the war does, so we have to jointly pressure Russia to force it to stop its aggression,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Ukraine also launched a fresh wave of drone attacks against Russian territory over the weekend.
Witkoff said teams of US negotiators would meet with both Russian and Ukrainian officials this week. “As the president said, he really expects there to be some sort of deal in the coming weeks, and I believe that’s the case,” he said.
There have been concerns that the settlement being pushed for by the Trump administration would look a lot like an outright Russian victory, at the expense of Ukraine and its allies in Europe.
Trump and Putin last week set off further alarm bells in Kyiv by exchanging friendly words, as the new US administration cosies up to Moscow while attacking Ukraine with threatening language and the withdrawal of some military support.
Separately, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told ABC’s This Week that back-and-forth diplomacy was ongoing. Waltz said there would be “some type of territory for future security guarantees, the future status of Ukraine”, and he called permanent Nato membership for Ukraine “incredibly unlikely”.
Waltz asked if it was plausible to believe that “we are going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea?”
He said: “We can talk about what’s right and wrong. And we also have to talk about the reality of the situation on the ground. And that’s what we are doing through diplomacy, through shuttle diplomacy, through proximity talks.”
