Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded sharply to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff's comment that a potential peace deal with Russia could involve "five territories." Noting that Ukraine is a sovereign country, Zelensky said that only Ukrainians have the right to speak about the country’s territories.
“These are red lines for us — recognizing any temporarily occupied territories as anything other than Ukrainian is unacceptable,” Zelensky said during a press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Odesa. “Once again, the representatives involved are discussing issues beyond their authority.”
A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is “taking shape,” said Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, during an appearance on Fox News in which he discussed his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“This is the third meeting I’ve had with him. This last meeting lasted close to five hours. We had two of his key advisors in the room at the time, [Yuri] Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, and it was a compelling meeting. And towards the end, we actually came up with […] what Putin’s request is to have a permanent peace here,” Witkoff said.
The peace deal reportedly involves what Witkoff called the “so-called five territories,” referring to Ukrainian regions currently occupied by Russia troops, but he said the talks go much further than that. “There’s security protocols, […] there’s just a lot of detail attached to it. It’s a complicated situation rooted in some real problematic things happening between the two countries. And I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large,” he explained.
Witkoff also said that he believes there’s a “possibility to reshape the Russia–United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region.” He added, “Partnerships create stability.”
