THE WITKOFF PLAN: This clown with his hand on his heart, is Donald Trump’s de facto envoy to Russian president Vladimir Putin. He literally greeted Putin with this gesture in Moscow on Friday 11 April.
A real estate developer with zero diplomatic experience, is not only cutting the actual Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, out of the loop regarding Russia, but also in the Middle East. Steve Witkoff is Jewish and has been friends with Trump since the early eighties. Round about the same time Donald was being sweet talked by the Soviets (Krasnov). Steve’s paternal grandparents were born in the Russian Empire.
A GREAT FRIENDSHIP: On February 11, 2025, Trump sent Witkoff to Moscow, where he met with President Putin and was responsible for the negotiations that led to a prisoner swap and the release of U.S. citizen Marc Fogel from a Russian prison, in exchange for Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik. Witkoff said that Putin and Trump “had a great friendship, and I think now it’s going to continue, and it’s a really good thing for the world”.
Witkoff said he “spent a lot of time with Putin” during the secret trip and had developed a “friendship and relationship” with Putin.
On March 21, 2025, in a podcast interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff said that the biggest issue in negotiations are the “so-called four regions: Donbas, Crimea, Lugansk…and there’s two others”. Russia occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014, then occupied and annexed four more Ukrainian provinces during its 2022 invasion.
He said that the populations in those provinces were Russian-speaking and “there were referendums where the vast majority of people indicated that they wanted to be under Russian rule”. The polls had been held by Russia in the midst of its invasion and were condemned as a “sham” by the U.S., Ukraine and most of the international community.
In the interview, Witkoff spoke positively of Vladimir Putin. He called Putin a “great guy” and “super smart”. Witkoff said “I liked him, I think he was honest” and “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy”. According to Witkoff, Putin told him that he prayed for “his friend” Donald Trump following the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
He recalled that “President Putin had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump, from the leading Russian artist, and actually gave it to me and asked me to take it home to President Trump”.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that Ukrainians were “very disturbed” by Witkoff’s comments and believed he had been influenced by Russian disinformation. U.S. Democratic Representative Seth Moulton called Witkoff’s comments “insane” and accused him of “negotiating for the other side” and “taking the side of our enemy”.
In 2018, Witkoff opposed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Witkoff has praised Russian president Putin and has appeared to support Russian government claims about its war against Ukraine. He said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not necessarily” started by Russia, that NATO had a significant role in provoking the conflict, and that most Eastern Ukrainians want to live under Russian rule.
Witkoff said he is certain that Putin is not going to invade Europe and is not interested in the rest of Ukraine other than the annexed southeastern Ukraine. – Wiki –
SERIOUSLY DODGY: US President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held a more than four-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s St. Petersburg on 11 April, as tensions rise over the administration’s approach to Ukraine peace negotiations.
After assuming the US presidency, Donald Trump pivoted towards Russia, pushing for Kyiv-Moscow peace talks in an attempt to end the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. With Moscow controlling not more than 20% of Ukraine and Russian forces continuing their incremental advances, the Kremlin believes it is in a strong negotiating position, insisting that Ukraine make concessions, while its demands—amounting to a de facto capitulation by Ukraine—have remained unchanged since the onset of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Sources told Reuters that less than 48 hours after dining with Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in Washington, Witkoff suggested to President Donald Trump that the quickest way to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine would be to support Russia’s claim to four eastern Ukrainian regions it tried to annex illegally in 2022, despite not fully controlling any of them. Reuters refers to two US officials and five people familiar with the situation.
During the White House meeting, General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, reportedly pushed back against Witkoff, arguing that Ukraine would never agree to unilaterally cede total ownership of these territories.
Some US Republicans have voiced serious concerns about Witkoff’s apparent pro-Russia stance. After his Carlson interview, several called National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to complain, sources told Reuters. – Euromaidan press
PUTIN IS NOT THE BAD GUY: United States special envoy Steve Witkoff revealed Monday there was real progress during his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding peace talks and a reset of relations between the two countries.
Witkoff said that he met with Russian president Vladimir Putin and his military advisors Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev for ongoing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
‘It was a compelling meeting,’ Witkoff said. ‘And toward the end, we actually came up with — I’m going to say ‘finally,’ but I don’t mean it in the way that we were waiting, I mean it in the way that it took a while for us to get to this place,’ he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview on Monday evening.
‘What Putin’s request is to get, to have a permanent peace here,’ he added.
Witkoff said he also discussed security protocols, NATO, and Article V, with Putin as well as economic opportunities.
I believe there’s 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,’ he said. – BBC
RARE EARTH: If you look at the maps below, then it is clear to see that the majority of critical rare earth minerals are found in the areas annexed by Russia. As we now know from observing the trade war tango, China will crush America because they produce 90% of the rare earth components needed to make most electronics function, from phones, to laptops, electric vehicles, solar panels, and even military equipment. That’s also why Trump wants Greenland, and why he is trying to force Zelensky into handing over the rare earths that are left in Ukraine. It’s one massive shake down.
UPDATE – 17/4: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused US special envoy Steve Witkoff of “disseminating Russian narratives” after he appeared to suggest that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine hinged on the status of five Ukrainian regions.
After holding a five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Witkoff told Fox News that a deal to end the war was “about these so-called five territories”.
“I think that Mr Witkoff has taken the strategy of the Russian side,” Zelensky told a Kyiv press conference on Thursday.
“I think it’s really dangerous, because consciously or unconsciously he is disseminating Russian narratives”.
Witkoff appeared to be referring to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in eastern Ukraine, much of which are under Russian military occupation after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion in 2022 with the aim of taking control of the whole country.
The fifth region is believed to be Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 in a move not recognised internationally.
“The territories are ours, they belong to our people and not only us but the future Ukrainian people… So I don’t understand what he’s talking about,” said Zelensky.
The US and Russia have been holding talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations. Zelensky’s intervention is not the first time he has criticised Witkoff. In March, he said: “He doesn’t look like a military man. He doesn’t look like a general, and he doesn’t have such experience. As far as I know, he is very good at selling and buying real estate. And this is a little different.”
The Ukrainian leader’s comments came after top US, Ukrainian and European diplomats met in Paris to discuss the war – a group that included Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Meanwhile Donald Trump renewed his own criticisms of Zelensky on Thursday. He appeared to row back on earlier comments accusing the Ukrainian leader of starting the war but said he was “not a big fan”.
“I don’t hold Zelensky responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” Trump said.
“I’m not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job, OK? I am not a big fan.” Zelensky also told journalists that he had “information” China was supplying weapons to Russia.
“We have finally received information that China is supplying weapons to the Russian Federation,” he said.
“We believe that Chinese representatives are engaged in the production of some weapons on Russian territory,” he added. China has not yet responded but has previously portrayed itself as a neutral party in the war.
Beijing did respond to an assertion last week by Zelensky that Chinese nationals were fighting for Russia by advising “relevant parties to correctly and soberly understand China’s role and not to make irresponsible remarks”. – BBC –
UPDATE – 18/4: Donald Trump said the US will “take a pass” on brokering further Russia-Ukraine war talks if Moscow or Kyiv “make it very difficult” to reach a peace deal. The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he was not expecting a truce to happen in “a specific number of days” but he wanted it done “quickly”.
His comments came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US would abandon talks “if it’s not going to happen”.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end,” Rubio said, adding that the US had “other priorities to focus on”.
When asked about the deal between Russian and Ukraine, Trump said: “We’re talking about here people dying. We’re going to get it stopped, ideally.
“Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people,’ and we’re going to just take a pass.”
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has placed a number of conditions on any potential ceasefire. Despite the Trump administration’s initial confidence that it could secure a deal quickly, attempts to reach a full ceasefire have yet to materialise, with Washington blaming both sides.
Following a meeting with European leaders in Paris about a potential ceasefire on Thursday, Rubio told reporters on Friday: “We need to determine very quickly now – and I’m talking about a matter of days – whether or not this is doable.”
“If it’s not going to happen, then we’re just going to move on,” he said about truce talks. He said it was clear that a peace deal would be difficult to strike but there needed to be signs it could be done soon.
Trump had said before he re-entered office that he would stop the fighting in the first 24 hours of his presidency. – BBC –
Apr 15, 2025 7:47:50 pm
