KYIV, Ukraine — President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has promised this week he will not sign off on a peace agrement between Ukraine and Russia until Ukrainians feel sure that Moscow will no longer take up arms against them.
“There is no deal here unless Ukraine and its people can believe that they will be able to live in peace if, in fact, there is a diplomatic solution,” Witkoff said in a virtual address to the Yalta European Strategy conference held here Tuesday. “That has to be the end result here — a reality that peace is there.
“That, I believe, will require strong security protocols from the United States backing up strong security protocols from Europe. And we set forth in that Geneva first meeting — we worked long hours — to establish that.”
Witkoff and Jared Kushner are again in Geneva on Thursday, first meeting with an Iranian delegation before talks with Ukraine’s negotiators.
“Today in Geneva we continue our work within the framework of the negotiation process,” said Ukrainian national security adviser and delegation head Rustem Umerov. “Together with the Government’s economic team, we will thoroughly work through the prosperity package: mechanisms for economic support and recovery of Ukraine, instruments for attracting investment, and frameworks for long-term cooperation.”
The teams will also “synchronize positions” ahead of additional talks with Russia, which will include “the issue of possible exchanges” of prisoners of war, Umerov said.
“We expect concrete results regarding the return of our citizens,” he said. “We are focused on practical solutions.”
The US-Ukraine talks come ahead of a fourth trilateral meeting between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow set for next week, during which the three sides will assess whether they can make progress on arranging a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Witkoff said Tuesday he “strongly” believed such a meeting could happen — a breakthrough that would rank as the most significant toward resolving the conflict since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.
“We think we have tried to resolve the other issues first and then leave the question of territory to the leaders,” he said. “There is a lot of work on territory; we need to consider different concepts and many options.”
Zelensky has repeatedly signaled readiness to meet with Putin to discuss the war’s end, but Putin has so far refused any serious opportunities to do so.
If the summit happens, Witkoff said, there could be another meeting that would also include President Trump — though the envoy added it was “too early to talk about” such a possibility.
“We’re going to do everything we can to help you to get to the right solution, the right peaceful solution, so that everybody in your country can live in peace one day,” Witkoff said.
The very next day, the Kremlin appeared to pour cold water on Witkoff’s optimism, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioning “whether there’s any point in holding a summit” between Putin and Zelensky.
Peskov added a trilateral between Trump, Putin and Zelensky should only happen once all sides are ready to “finalize agreements.”
