Vladimir Putin greets Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin, January 22, 2026
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I joined Ukrainian journalists Daniel Tkiie and Sofia Nazarenko on Thursday to evaluate the Kremlin’s maximum demands, manipulating Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, for Ukraine’s surrender of territory.
The interview was recorded after Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi, where Moscow refused to discuss a ceasefire and security guarantees for Kyiv, and as Vladimir Putin was hosting Kushner and Witkoff in the Kremlin. The US envoys then met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday evening.
I forecast the outcome with the envoys proposing to Zelensky that Ukraine give up the rest of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country, in return for Ukrainian membership in NATO.
Do Witkoff and Kushner come back [from Moscow] and say, “You will get security guarantees if the Russians get additional territory”? This has always been the risk with Witkoff, in particular.
We’ll find out after this interview, but I predict: Witkoff and Kushner will talk about “Europe-wide security architecture”. They will not talk about a ceasefire. They are not going to talk about territorial integrity on the basis of current frontlines. They are not going to talk about specific security guarantees for Ukraine.
And on Friday, we are going to be in the same position that we were last Friday and the Friday before that and the Friday before that. The Americans will go through the motions of having more talks without addressing the fundamental, “What are you having the talks for?”
