U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff gave brief interviews today on both CNN’s State of the Union show, hosted by Jake Tapper, and on Fox News Sunday, with Shannon Bream. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press.
In the Witkoff interviews, both TV hosts pushed the line that, “Trump was firm about wanting a ceasefire, and since the summit didn’t result in one being declared, the talks were a failure.”
When Tapper asked for specific points of agreement, Witkoff responded: “We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing. We didn’t think that we were anywhere close to agreeing to Article 5 protection from the United States, legislative enshrinement within the Russian Federation not to go after any other territory when the peace deal is codified, legislative enshrinement in the Russian Federation, not to go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty. So we agreed to—and there was plenty more.”
Tapper leaned into the idea that no ceasefire was agreed to, and that there might be a “land swap” of different districts in the region, to which Witkoff emphasized that the U.S. was at the summit as a mediator for Ukraine, and that any agreements about divisions of land would be up to them.
He also emphasized that: “Those five regions, the Russians have previously said that they wanted it at the administrative lines … the administrative lines and the actual legal boundary lines, as compared to the contact lines … the Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions.
“There is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there. And that discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday, when President Zelenskyy arrives with his delegation and some of the other European leaders.” He indicated that Russia is ready to make other concessions, but refused to divulge them in the interview.
