Trump's envoy Witkoff may have misunderstood Putin's demands regarding ceasefire in Ukraine – Bild
US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff may have misrepresented Russia's position on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine after he met with Vladimir Putin this week.
Source: Bild, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Bild reports that Russia has not abandoned its demand for complete control over Crimea and Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kherson oblasts prior to any ceasefire, and has only agreed to a "sectoral" ceasefire.
However, in peace proposals leaked to the media Putin appeared willing to discuss a ceasefire after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces only from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Bild’s sources say this could have been the result of Witkoff misinterpreting what Putin said about a "peaceful withdrawal" from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts: Russia is demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from these oblasts, but Witkoff thought the proposal was for Russian troops to withdraw from there.
"Witkoff doesn't know what he's talking about," the German tabloid quotes an anonymous Ukrainian official as saying. According to Bild, it’s an assessment shared by "representatives of the German government".
Background:
- Amid news of the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska on 15 August, as well as media claims that Washington and Moscow want to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine that would lock in Russia's occupation of part of the territories seized during its full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that "the answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already there in the Constitution of Ukraine".
- US, Ukrainian and European officials are reportedly planning to meet in the UK to coordinate their positions ahead of the Trump-Putin summit.
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