{"id":581892,"date":"2025-11-20T05:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581892\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T05:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:32:12","slug":"witkoffs-back-channel-push-on-ukraine-alarms-allies-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581892\/","title":{"rendered":"Witkoff\u2019s back-channel push on Ukraine alarms allies \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House has been bullish about the burgeoning plan, with one senior White House official saying a framework for ending the conflict could be agreed to by all parties by the end of this month, and even\u00a0\u201cas soon as this week.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0A second White House official said both sides will need to show flexibility.<\/p>\n

Ukraine hasn\u2019t commented publicly about the plan. Zelenskyy\u2019s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Wednesday he is in \u201cconstant communication\u201d with Trump\u2019s team, including Witkoff, and would work with the U.S. to end the war \u201cand secure a just and lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.K. Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper noted that Putin has rebuffed all of Trump\u2019s peace efforts so far and has instead \u201csimply chosen to escalate the war.\u201d This is why, she said, the European approach is to pressure Putin, through economic sanctions and support for Ukraine, to come back to the table for peace talks.<\/p>\n

One U.K. diplomat indicated London had not been briefed on the proposals, despite national security adviser Jonathan Powell\u2019s close relationship to Witkoff. A second British official sought to downplay how seriously the plan should be taken.<\/p>\n

European and Ukrainian officials have for months been wary of Witkoff\u2019s approach to the conflict.<\/p>\n

Some have blamed his penchant for working alone for the failure of the administration\u2019s peace efforts so far, with his refusal to consult allies leaving him at times uninformed or unprepared, as\u00a0POLITICO has reported<\/a>. They see his quiet consultations with Russia as an example of how he has been misled by Russia about the nature of the conflict and Putin\u2019s true aims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House has been bullish about the burgeoning plan, with one senior White House official saying a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[24605,2001,2437,6178,473,2438,5293,32,2595,52871,2000,299,29135,660,2820,2597,809,2661,332,811,7070,657,15,49,333,2601,771,335,1116,5113],"class_list":{"0":"post-581892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-andriy-yermak","9":"tag-communications","10":"tag-companies","11":"tag-conflict","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-department","14":"tag-diplomacy","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-drones","17":"tag-economic-sanctions","18":"tag-eu","19":"tag-europe","20":"tag-johann-wadephul","21":"tag-kremlin","22":"tag-marco-rubio","23":"tag-military","24":"tag-negotiations","25":"tag-oil","26":"tag-russia","27":"tag-security","28":"tag-steve-witkoff","29":"tag-ukraine","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-vladimir-putin","33":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","34":"tag-war","35":"tag-war-in-ukraine","36":"tag-weapons","37":"tag-yvette-cooper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115580393562616925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}