WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS: When US President Donald Trump wanted someone to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to open negotiations for a potential deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he didn’t dispatch his secretary of state.

The man he sent to the Kremlin to handle a titanic geopolitical challenge does not even have a diplomatic background, the BBC reported.

Instead, Trump picked his personal friend, golf buddy and billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff. The president has made Witkoff his Middle East envoy.

But last week the Bronx-born businessman found himself in discussions about ending a conflict in Eastern Europe — having been “with [Putin] for a very extended period, like about three hours”, in Trump’s words.

Witkoff was in Moscow to help facilitate a deal that saw the US and Russia swap prisoners, which was seen as signalling a possible thaw in relations between the two countries. Witkoff also played a part in brokering the current ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, for which both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden took credit.

Witkoff is now returning to the region — specifically Saudi Arabia — for the first US-Russian face-to-face talks over the war in Ukraine after Trump had his own call with Putin, according to BBC news.

Top Russian, US officials to meet in Saudi Arabia today

So, who is Witkoff — dubbed by US media as “the man in the room”, taking centre stage as more potentially consequential international talks take place?

He was one of Trump’s first picks for his top team after his presidential election win in November. Trump wrote: “Steve will be an unrelenting voice for PEACE, and make us all proud”, the BBC reported.

“The president sees Steve as one of the world’s great dealmakers,” a White House official told Axios.

Witkoff’s preferred negotiating tactic was to use charm, according to another associate, but he could also turn up the pressure. The 67-year-old was raised in Long Island, New York and trained as a real estate developer in one of America’s most cut-throat markets.

Ukraine deal

US envoy Keith Kellogg on Monday said that he would not tell Ukraine to accept whatever deal is negotiated by President Donald Trump to end Russia’s war, ahead of a visit to Kyiv.

Kellogg is set to arrive in Ukraine on Wednesday for three days of talks that will include a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

His visit to Kyiv will come after top US officials, including Wikoff, meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first time since Trump blindsided allies by agreeing to launch peace efforts with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Kellogg said US officials were engaged in parallel efforts to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table — with him spearheading the outreach to Ukraine. Trump’s envoy insisted that it would ultimately be up to Zelensky to decide if Ukraine accepts any deal that the US leader brokers.

“The decision by Ukrainians is a Ukrainian decision,” Kellogg told journalists after talks with US allies at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2025