European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the European Parliament, Strasbourg, France, November 26, 2025 (Frederick Florin/AFP)

EA on Dublin NewsTalk: Trump Envoy Witkoff’s Collusion With Kremlin Over Ukraine

Wednesday’s Coverage: Trump’s Envoy Witkoff Colludes with Kremlin for Surrender of Ukrainian Territory

UPDATE 1214 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky sends Thanksgiving greetings to Donald Trump:

UPDATE 1104 GMT:

The International Monetary Fund has reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine to provide $8.2 billion over four years to 2029.

The funds come through a renewed agreement under the Extended Fund Facility supporting Ukraine’s financial and economic stability. Ukraine has received $10.6 billion under a $15 billion authorization through 2027.

Ukraine spends all its tax revenues on the military, allocating $62.8 billion in the draft state budget for 2026. Kyiv needs $61 billion to balance its books in 2026 and 2027.

The IMF posted:

Russia’s war continues to take a heavy toll on Ukraine’s people and its economy.

The agreement covers a set of fiscal and monetary policies to anchor the program, whose goals include maintaining macroeconomic stability, restoring debt sustainability and external viability, tackling corruption, and improving governance.

UPDATE 1005 GMT:

Senior Republicans in the US Congress are criticizing the collusion of Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, with the Kremlin.

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace.”

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska was even blunter:

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania Republican, commented on the leak of Witkoff’s October 14 discussion with Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, “[This is] one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop.”

And Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former long-time Senate Republican Leader, concluded a thread on social media:

The most basic reality on the ground is that the price of peace matters. A deal that rewards aggression wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on. America isn’t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn’t act like one.

Vice-President J.D. Vance, the power behind the Trump-Kremlin collusion, accused McConnell of a “ridiculous attack”. Donald Trump Jr. snapped that McConnell was “just bitter and lashing out against my father”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s European partners are warning against a “carve-up” of the country, as some Trump Administration officials collude with the Kremlin to press Russia’s maximalist demands.

Addressing the European Parliament on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia shows “no signs of true willingness to end the conflict” as it seeks “the unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation”.

She explained:

From the start, Russia has always believed that they can outlast Ukraine, Europe and all of its allies. And it is why, every time there is serious progress towards negotiations that can bring about a real peace, the violence escalates. We have seen this before. This is a pattern, and the noises from the Kremlin in the last few days say a lot about its real intentions.

For them, Ukraine remains a first step in a much bigger game for Russia. Any peace deal is about permanently redrawing maps; it is about returning to great power relations and spheres of influence.

But for Ukraine and for Europe, any peace agreement is about creating a just and lasting peace, peace that stops this conflict and does not sow the seeds for new future conflicts.

The President opened the speech by referring to Russia’s mass murder last week in Ternopil in western Ukraine, killing 34 civilians — including six children — in a missile strike on a residential block.

Over more than three and a half years into this war of aggression, this is the daily reality on the ground, and it shows that we can never lose sight of what Ukraine is sacrificing, what Ukraine is fighting for, its security, its freedom, its independence, because ultimately, this is what is at stake.

She concluded:

So we need to be clear that there cannot be unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation, and that borders cannot be changed by force. If today we legitimize and formalize the undermining of borders, we open the doors for more wars tomorrow, and we cannot let this happen.

Donald Trump’s envoy/real estate developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, supported by Vice President J.D. Vance, have been working with a Russian plan for Ukraine’s capitulation. The demands include Kyiv’s surrender of the rest of the strategic Donetsk region in the east of the country; a permanent ban on Ukrainian membership in NATO, restrictions on Western assistance to Kyiv, and strict limits on Ukraine’s armed forces; and the lifting of sanctions on Moscow, which would re-enter the G8 group of nations.

The Europeans and Ukraine, supported by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, put out a counter-proposal from talks in Geneva on Sunday. Unlike the pro-Kremlin “plan”, it begins with a ceasefire on the current frontlines.

Arrangements would then be worked out. There is no assumption of a NATO ban on Ukraine, although there is no consensus for Kyiv’s membership. Western military assistance will continue as part of security guarantees, and Ukraine’s troop level in peacetime will be up to 800,000 rather than 600,000.

Ukraine’s “Inherent Right to Self-Defense”

In a video call on Wednesday, European Union Foreign Ministers reaffirmed our “shared principles” including sovereignty, independence, territorial independence and “Ukraine’s inherent right to self-defense”.

EU foreign policy head Kaja Kallas said, “Right now we see zero indication that Russia is ready for a ceasefire. We still need to get from a situation where Russia pretends to negotiate to a situation where they need to negotiate. We are getting there.”

She pushed back on any Trump-Kremlin narrative that Russia is “winning” in its 46-month full-scale invasion.

The notion that Ukraine is losing is also flat out false. If Russia could conquer Ukraine militarily, it would have already done so by now. Putin cannot achieve its goals on the battlefield, so he will try to negotiate his way there.

Noting that in the last century the Soviet Union and then Russia had attacked more than 19 countries, some three or four times, Kallas summarized, “In any peace agreement, we have to put the focus on how to get concessions from the Russian side that they stop the aggression for good and do not try to change borders by force.”

Zelensky: “It is Worth Standing with Ukraine”

Speaking with Von der Leyen after her speech in Strasbourg, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “We see eye to eye: as long as Russia continues to rebuff all peace efforts, sanctions against it must be tightened, and defense and financial assistance for Ukraine must continue.”

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky cited the successful resistance against the Kremlin’s all-out aerial and ground assault.

The Russians are peddling the narrative around the world that Ukraine allegedly cannot defend itself. They are saying that Ukrainian warriors cannot defend themselves.

The daily combat results of the Ukrainian army, our special forces, and deep strikes – these are all proof that Ukraine can defend its interests.

Every Russian loss of manpower, weapons, and equipment showed “it is worth standing with Ukraine, worth helping Ukraine, and that it is not Ukraine that must be pressured for peace, but Russia – the sole reason this war drags on”.