President Donald Trump’s top negotiator in Ukraine appeared like a deer in headlights discussing what the president had achieved in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff insisted his boss made “progress” achieving peace during the summit, though acknowledged that what Trump fell short of the ceasefire that he had promised before the meeting.
“Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we’re on the path for the first time,” Witkoff said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
Witkoff said Russia has agreed to “legislative enshrinement in the Russian Federation” not to go after European countries and violate their sovereignty before claiming cryptically that the failure to arrive at a ceasefire at the Alaska summit had paved the way for an end to fighting.
“We are intent on trying to hammer out a peace deal that ends the fighting permanently, quicker than a ceasefire,” Witkoff claimed.
Host Jake Tapper appeared perplexed.
“I still don’t understand how not getting the ceasefire is a win,” he said.
“We cut through all kinds of issues that would have to be discussed and agreed to during a ceasefire period,” Witkoff claimed. “The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously, ultimately in control of the Ukrainians—that could not have been discussed at this meeting.”
Without specifying, Witkoff said that the Russian delegation “made some other concessions on several of the regions [of Ukraine],” which he called “significant.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s enough,” he said.
Witkoff said territorial concessions would be discussed on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Witkoff further claimed Putin had agreed to “effectively offer Article Five-like language to cover a security guarantee,” referring to the provision of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) agreement that signatories would treat an attack on any NATO member as an attack on them all.
Tapper pressed Witkoff on this claim, asking Witkoff if “any further incursions in Ukraine, Russia would understand would be seen as an attack on all NATO members?”
“No, Jake, that’s not what I said,” Witkoff said. “We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee.”
Witkoff’s remarks come after an abysmal meeting with Putin on Wednesday in which he mistook Putin’s demand for a “peaceful withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as a proposed concession from Putin to pull back Russian troops in the regions.
Witkoff’s lukewarm evaluation on CNN comes after Trump rated his meeting with Putin as a “10 out of 10.”
After the meeting, Trump walked back his goal of achieving a ceasefire—which he said Putin would have to agree to on Friday or face economic consequences—and has pivoted to trying to achieve a peace deal involving territorial concessions to Russia.
According to one European diplomat who spoke to Fox News on Saturday, Trump supports the idea of Russia taking full control of the eastern Donbas region. The Donbas region includes Luhansk, which Russia controls, and Donetsk, which is still heavily contested and controlled partly by Ukrainian forces.
Last week, Zelensky said that he would reject any proposal to cede the region to Russia, saying that would “open a bridgehead” to further territorial incursions from Putin.
Ultimately, Witkoff said that “everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with,” continuing to put the onus on Zelensky to accept major concessions to end the war.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
