"What were you talking about for five hours?" Trump recalls Witkoff's first meeting with Putin

US President Donald Trump has said he was surprised by how long the first meeting between Steve Witkoff, his Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin lasted.

Source: Trump speaking in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament

Details: Trump said he personally arranged the meeting, expecting it to last 15-20 minutes as Witkoff "had no idea about Russia, had no idea about Putin and didn't know much about politics".

But the talks went on for more than five hours. Trump admitted that he called several times during the meeting to ask if it had ended, only to be told that Witkoff was still talking to Putin.

Quote: "I called up an hour later – …but he was still with Putin… I called three hours later – he was still with Putin. Four hours later – still with Putin. And in five hours he came out, and I said, 'What the hell were you talking about for five hours?'"

More details: Trump admitted that he had not expected the conversation to go on for so long, as Witkoff, he said, had no political experience or knowledge of Russia.

He also described Witkoff as "just a great guy; everybody loves him".

Background:

• On 11 April, Witkoff met with Putin in St Petersburg to discuss a potential pathway to resolving the war in Ukraine. Russian state media outlets reported that the meeting lasted four and a half hours.
• This was not the first time Witkoff had spoken about Russian-occupied territories in the context of "resolving" the Russo-Ukrainian war.
• In his widely discussed interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff said, "The biggest issue in this conflict is the so-called four regions," which according to him are "Donbas, Crimea, Luhansk, and two others".
• Following these remarks, Reuters reported that some of Witkoff's actions and comments regarding the settlement of Russia's war against Ukraine had drawn criticism from the White House and Republican Party members.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!