Witcoff suggested to give Russia four Ukrainian regions - Reuters
Less than 48 hours after dinner with the negotiator, which the Russian President sent to Washington last week, Steve Vitcoff, a special ambassador Trump, who was talking with Moscow, met with the US President in the White House.
According to Witcoff, the fastest way to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine was to support a strategy that would transfer Russia to the four Eastern Ukrainian regions, which it has already partially annexed, reported by two American officials and five people who are familiar with the situation. It is about Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.
According to the newspaper, it was a thesis that Vitcoff had already expressed, in particular in Podkast Interview with such as Karlson a few weeks earlier. During the meeting with Trump, General Kit Kellogg, the US Presidential Commissioner in Ukraine, opposed Vitcoff, saying that Ukraine would never agree unilaterally to yield to the full property of Russia, two sources said. The meeting ended without the decision of Trump to change the US strategy.
Meanwhile, Vitcoff went to Russia on Friday, April 11 to meet Putin. Moreover, in violation of ordinary safety procedures, Vitcoff invited Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian ambassador, which is under US sanctions after the Russian invasion, to his personal residence for dinner before meeting in the White House. According to two people familiar with the situation, it has caused anxiety in the White House and the State Department. US officials avoid taking officials from Russia at home.
Dinner was postponed and instead took place in the White House. According to the newspaper, Vitcoff, a longtime friend of Trump, who helped to provide key diplomatic victories of the President, enlisted some support for the skeptics of the Republican Party against Ukraine, but his proposals caused outrage among other Republicans who believe that the administration had returned too sharply to Moscow.
Some Republicans on the Capitol Hill were so concerned about Vitcoff's apparent pro -Russian position in an interview with Carlson that a few subsequently called National Security Advisor Mike Volts and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to be afraid. Earlier, journalists wrote that if the ceasefire agreement is not reached by the end of the month, Trump may initiate new sanctions against Russia.
This is possible both through a personal decision under the executive power and through the relevant bill in Congress. "We are moving forward. It is hoped that we are close to agreements that will stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine," the US President said on April 10. Meanwhile, Ukraine considers the possibility of elections after the end of martial law, and now the Verkhovna Rada is ready to continue mobilization and martial law, Ruslan Stefanchuk said on April 11.