Witkoff 'Lacks Expertise' on Russian Deception, Says Liana Fix

Liana Fix, senior fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Russia's goal in negotiating with the US is emerge with control over a weakened Ukraine that's not allied with western nations.

Vladimir Putin began talks at the Kremlin with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest plans aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian president, who was joined by his foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, said in comments shown on state television that he was pleased to see the Americans. Witkoff praised Moscow as a “magnificent city” after Putin asked whether they’d been on a walk around the capital before the talks.

Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, follows negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida on the proposals aimed at reaching a deal to end Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with his negotiating team in Ireland earlier Tuesday to get a “detailed briefing” on the Florida talks.

Ahead of the Kremlin meeting, Putin threatened strikes on ships of countries supporting Ukraine if a surge in attacks on Moscow’s tanker fleet in the past week doesn’t halt. “What the Ukrainian armed forces are doing now is piracy,” he told reporters in Moscow.

Zelenskiy said he’s waiting for the results of the meeting in Moscow. “I am ready to receive all signals, ready to meet with President Trump — everything depends on today’s talks,” he told reporters in Dublin. “The dialogs can continue, but results are needed.”

Amid fears in Europe that the US plan risks rewarding Russian aggression by forcing Kyiv into a deal, Zelenskiy said during a visit to Paris on Monday that the latest version “looks better,” where he met with Witkoff and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Putin has signaled an openness to talks, saying last week that Trump’s proposals for ending the war could be “the basis for future agreements,” while adding that no final version exists yet. Still, he’s given no sign that he’s ready to roll back Russian demands.

Putin claimed late Monday that his troops had taken the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, an advance that would be Russia’s most significant on the battlefield in nearly two years. Ukraine’s Military Staff denied its forces had lost the city.

Bloomberg isn’t able to independently verify the claims of either side.

Witkoff, who’s meeting Putin in Russia for the sixth time this year, promoted an original 28-point plan that emerged last month and was drawn up with Dmitriev. Those proposals horrified officials in Ukraine and Europe by outlining Russian demands for concessions that Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.

An Oct. 14 phone call between Witkoff and Ushakov showed that the US envoy suggested they work together on a plan to end the war in Ukraine modeled on Trump’s Gaza peace deal, according to a recording of the conversation reviewed and transcribed by Bloomberg. Ushakov and Dmitriev also discussed the plans in an Oct. 29 phone call.

Zelenskiy told reporters that Witkoff was “very welcome to Ukraine,” but that he wasn’t sure if the US delegation “are on this way these days, that they are ready to come.”

The seizure of Pokrovsk, a defensive hub that’s been the focus of intense fighting for more than a year, would potentially open up the path for Russia to threaten the larger cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. It would offer Moscow a symbolic victory as Putin continues to insist that Ukraine must surrender the entire Donetsk region under a deal to end the war.

Putin claimed in October that his military had encircled Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk. That was rejected by Ukraine, though it acknowledged Russian soldiers had entered the city.

Russia’s forces are spreading through Pokrovsk, particularly in central and northern areas, in an attempt to seize the city, the DeepState mapping service that cooperates with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said late Monday.

--------

Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube

Weekdays 7am-6pm ET

Follow us on X

Subscribe to our Podcasts:

Bloomberg Daybreak

Bloomberg Surveillance

Bloomberg Intelligence

Balance of Power

Bloomberg Businessweek

Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app:

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

Visit our YouTube channels:

Bloomberg Podcasts

Bloomberg Television

Bloomberg Originals