Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff (Getty)
EA-CAI VideoCast: Watching Russia Fail in Ukraine
EA-War and Politics 24: What Next for Ukraine-Russia-US Talks?
I joined Ukraine’s War and Politics 24 on Thursday for a 35-minute examination of uncertainty and confusion after the first Ukraine-Russia-US talks seeking to end Moscow’s 47-month full-scale invasion.
Speaking with hosts Daniel Tkiie and Sofia Nazarenko, I admit the struggle to analyze developments with few details from last weekend’s first round in Abu Dhabi.
There is no indication of advance on the issues of territory and security guarantees for Kyiv. Instead, reports indicate Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have demanded that Ukraine give up the rest of the strategic Donetsk region in return for any guarantees from the US.
Multiple officials and journalists have testified about Witkoff’s naïveté and incompetence, less than three months after he and Kushner colluded with the Kremlin on a 28-point ultimatum to Ukraine.
And there is further confusion over a proposed temporary ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure: the Kremlin is backing away from acceptance despite Donald Trump’s declaration that he obtained Vladimir Putin’s acceptance of a week-long pause.
I am a bit passionate about this.
We are talking about an invasion which may be the most serious in Europe since 1945. We had a report this week of almost 2 million military casualties. There are ten of thousands of civilian casualties.
The US does not have diplomats here. It does not have people trained in mediation or negotiation. It has a real estate developer and Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
That is not a recipe to end this invasion, especially when the Kremlin knows how they can manipulate that real estate developer and Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
