Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East has taken aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s Ukraine plan, accusing him of trying to act like Churchill.
Steve Witkoff said Starmer’s plan for an international peacekeeping force to support peace in Ukraine was based on a “simplistic” notion of him and other EU leaders thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.
In an interview with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff called Vladimir Putin “super smart”, and said he “liked” him.
"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy," he added, claiming the Russian leader had been “gracious” and “straight up” with him when they met 10 days ago.
According to Witkoff, Putin prayed for Trump after the assassination attempt against him last year, and had commissioned a portrait of the US leader as a gift.
Witkoff, who is leading the US peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia, called Ukraine a “false country” during the interview, and questioned when the world would recognise occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.
He said: "The elephant in the room is, there are constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede to with regard to giving up territory. The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?"
He added: "There's a sensibility in Russia that Ukraine is just a false country, that they just patched together in this sort of mosaic, these regions, and that's what is the root cause, in my opinion, of this war, that Russia regards those five regions as rightfully theirs since World War Two, and that's something nobody wants to talk about."
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Appearing unable to name the five regions of Ukraine partially occupied or annexed by Putin, Witkoff said: "The largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea, you know the names and there are two others."
The five affected regions are Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.
The special envoy continued to make claims that have been deemed untrue or disputed in the past.
He said Ukrainian troops in Kursk were surrounded - which has been denied by Ukraine and uncorroborated by open source data.
He stated the four partially occupied regions of Ukraine had held "referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule".
However, referendums were only held in certain occupied areas of Ukraine at different times, and both the methodology and results were widely discredited and contested.
Witkoff’s remarks come as the US is set to hold separate discussions in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine about a ceasefire on Sunday and Monday.
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Steve Witkoff said Starmer’s plan for an international peacekeeping force to support peace in Ukraine was based on a “simplistic” notion of him and other EU leaders thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.
In an interview with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, Witkoff called Vladimir Putin “super smart”, and said he “liked” him.
"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy," he added, claiming the Russian leader had been “gracious” and “straight up” with him when they met 10 days ago.
According to Witkoff, Putin prayed for Trump after the assassination attempt against him last year, and had commissioned a portrait of the US leader as a gift.
Witkoff, who is leading the US peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia, called Ukraine a “false country” during the interview, and questioned when the world would recognise occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.
He said: "The elephant in the room is, there are constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede to with regard to giving up territory. The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?"
He added: "There's a sensibility in Russia that Ukraine is just a false country, that they just patched together in this sort of mosaic, these regions, and that's what is the root cause, in my opinion, of this war, that Russia regards those five regions as rightfully theirs since World War Two, and that's something nobody wants to talk about."
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Appearing unable to name the five regions of Ukraine partially occupied or annexed by Putin, Witkoff said: "The largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea, you know the names and there are two others."
The five affected regions are Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.
The special envoy continued to make claims that have been deemed untrue or disputed in the past.
He said Ukrainian troops in Kursk were surrounded - which has been denied by Ukraine and uncorroborated by open source data.
He stated the four partially occupied regions of Ukraine had held "referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule".
However, referendums were only held in certain occupied areas of Ukraine at different times, and both the methodology and results were widely discredited and contested.
Witkoff’s remarks come as the US is set to hold separate discussions in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine about a ceasefire on Sunday and Monday.
Find Out More...