Putin open to lasting peace with Ukraine, Trump envoy Witkoff says after ‘compelling’ meet

Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of President Donald Trump, described his meeting with Vladimir Putin as "compelling" and that the Russian leader seemed amenable to a long-term peace agreement with Ukraine. As part of the Trump administration's efforts to put an end to the three-year conflict, Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg last Friday.

Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that "it took a while for us to get to this place," but that "I think we might be on the verge of something very important for the world." Witkoff claimed to have seen an agreement "emerging" following five hours of negotiations with Vladimir Putin. Additionally, he discussed "the potential to reshape the relationship between the United States and Russia through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region too."

His comments followed US President Donald Trump's Monday declaration that the crisis in Ukraine was "Biden's war" and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was partly responsible for its inception. "Biden, not me, is fighting the battle between Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, "I just got here, and for four years during my term, I had no problem preventing it from happening."