March 25, 2025 (EIRNS)—The chairman of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Foreign Affairs Committee Aleksandr Merezhko accused Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff of spreading Russian propaganda and called for him to be dumped. On Ukrainian television yesterday, Merezhko called Witkoff’s identification of Crimea, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as “Russian-speaking” regions that had voted overwhelmingly to join Russia, as “disgraceful, shocking statements.”
Merezhko explained: “We are talking about a representative of the President who should have professional expertise in this matter and know some basic things, obvious things. And he doesn’t know this. He spreads Russian propaganda…. We clearly can’t dictate to American friends who should represent them. But this person needs to be removed from this delegation; he should not be a representative of the President. Since he’s either completely unprofessional or simply repeats Putin’s narratives.”
Since the populations of all five of those regions, in fact, have a significant majority that are Russian speakers, and who voted overwhelmingly to join Russia after the coup d’état in Kiev Merezhko’s explosion may lend credence to Witkoff’s other point—that the status of those regions are the “elephant in the room” that some simply don’t want to talk about.
