U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to a \u201cpermanent peace\u201d deal with Ukraine, but did not indicate whether any of the Kremlin leader\u2019s previous demands for a ceasefire in Ukraine had changed.<\/p>\n
Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg last week, their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House in January. Following that five-hour discussion, where Putin aides\u00a0Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev were also present, the Trump envoy said he sees a peace deal \u201cemerging.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPutin\u2019s request is to have a permanent peace here. So, beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,\u201d Witkoff told Fox News in a Monday interview, adding, \u201cIt took a while for us to get to this place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witkoff said the peace deal currently under discussion involves \u201cfive territories,\u201d referring to Ukrainian regions currently occupied by Russian forces, but emphasized that the talks go beyond that \u2014 including Moscow\u2019s demand that Ukraine abandon its NATO membership bid.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously\u00a0ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia as a potential step toward a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated situation rooted in some real problematic things happening between the two countries,\u201d Witkoff told Fox News. \u201cI think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said business ties between the U.S. and Russia were also part of the talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe there\u2019s a possibility to reshape the Russian-U.S. relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region too,\u201d Witkoff said.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Kremlin sought to temper expectations after Witkoff\u2019s meeting with Putin last week, saying that diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine were\u00a0\u201ctense and ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n