Mr. Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East said on Sunday that the United States is “very close” to reaching a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.
According to Witkoff, any potential deal would require both territorial and economic concessions from both sides.
“You will see concessions from both sides. And this is what the president does best. He brings people together. He makes them understand that the path to peace is through concessions and reaching a consensus,” Vitkoff said.
He also suggested that the 2022 Istanbul agreements could serve as the foundation for a future peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia.
The Istanbul agreements between Ukraine and Russia in 2022 refer to a series of negotiations held in Istanbul, Turkey in late March 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The produced communique outlined potential terms for a peace agreement including Ukraine adopting a neutral status and abandoning NATO aspirations, limits on Ukraine’s military forces, Western security guarantees for Ukraine, negotiation of Crimea’s status over 10-15 years, and allowing Ukraine to apply for EU membership.
Related Posts
Meanwhile, speaking to CNN, Witkoff reiterated that the war did not need to happen and that regardless of who started it, it must come to an end.
“The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” he said.
“There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The president has spoken about this. That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians,” he added.
“There were very, very what I’ll call cogent and substantive negotiations framed in something that’s called the Istanbul Protocol Agreement. We came very, very close to signing something, and I think we’ll be using that framework as a guidepost to get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia, and I think that will be an amazing day.”
While commenting on the role that US President Donald Trump has in the process, Witkoff said, “We have had close to 1.5 million deaths, and finally we have a leader determined to end the carnage”
