WASHINGTON: Less than 48 hours after dining with a negotiator sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Washington last week, Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy leading talks with Moscow, sat down with President Donald Trump in the White House and delivered a clear message.

The fastest way to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, said Witkoff, was to support a strategy that would give Russia ownership of four eastern Ukrainian regions it attempted to annex illegally in 2022, two US officials said.

It was a point Witkoff had made previously and publicly in a podcast interview with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson last month, but one that Kyiv has repeatedly rejected and that some US and European officials have dismissed as a maximalist Russian demand.

In the meeting with Trump, General Keith Kellogg, the US president’s Ukraine envoy, pushed back against Witkoff, saying Ukraine, though willing to negotiate some terms related to disputed land, would never agree to unilaterally cede total ownership of the territories to Russia, said two of the sources.

The meeting ended without Trump making a decision to change the US strategy. Witkoff travelled to Russia on Friday to meet Putin.

Trump administration officials are increasingly at odds over how to break the deadlock between Ukraine and Russia, with Witkoff and Kellogg — who favours more direct support for Ukraine — disagreeing on the best course forward, according to the US officials.

Witkoff’s office, the National Security Council, the State Department, Ukraine’s foreign ministry and the Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

In a break with normal security procedures, Witkoff had invited Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian envoy who is under US sanctions following Russia’s invasion, to his personal residence for dinner before the White House meeting.

That set off alarms inside the White House and the State Department, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Officials in Washington avoid hosting officials from Russia to their homes.

The dinner was rescheduled and took place at the White House instead.

Witkoff, an old friend of Trump’s who has helped secure key diplomatic victories for the president, has garnered some support from the Republican Party’s Ukraine skeptics, but his proposals have stoked outrage among other Republicans who believe the administration has turned too sharply toward Moscow.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill were so concerned about Witkoff’s apparent pro-Russia stance in the Carlson interview that several called National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio afterward to complain, according to a person familiar with the calls.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2025