US special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested Sunday that the war in Ukraine wasn’t “necessarily” provoked by the Kremlin, while predicting that a mineral deal with Kyiv would get “signed this week.”
“The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” Witkoff, 67, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians,” said Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy to the Mideast whose duties have now expanded to Ukraine.
Witkoff’s comments picked up where President Trump left off on Truth Social last week when he blamed Ukraine for starting the war.
“You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump wrote.
Meanwhile, Witkoff said Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is “not wavering anymore” on a deal pushed by Trump to pay back the US for its military aid to its war-torn ally with lucrative minerals.
“I expect to see a deal signed this week,” Witkoff said of the demanded compensation. “[Zelensky] realizes that we have done so much and that that agreement belongs being signed. And I think you will see it signed this week.”
Russia launched its brutal war against neighboring Ukraine three years ago Monday and has been widely blamed by Republicans and Democrats alike for instigating the conflict.
Last year, during an interview with Kremlin tyrant Vladimir Putin, conservative pundit Tucker Carlson seemingly egged on the Russian dictator to blame Russia’s bloody aggression on its concerns about Ukraine joining NATO.
Putin instead went on a lengthy tirade about Russian history and openly questioned why Ukraine even existed as an independent country.
During the run-up to the war, Russia had demanded NATO peel back from Eastern Europe and stay out of Ukraine, which has repeatedly attempted to join the alliance. NATO leadership has refused to rule out Ukraine’s admittance of NATO, much to the anger of Russia.
Russia also repeatedly told the world that it had no intention of invading Ukraine in the months preceding its full-scale invasion, as it built up its forces along the border.
“Just a reminder to our viewers, Russia seiezed Ukrainian territory in 2014 with Crimea,” CNN moderator Jake Tapper said after Witkoff’s remarks Sunday. “[Russian forces] have been going into the Donbas region and seizing land in eastern Ukraine, long before they attacked three years ago.”
Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 after anti-Ukrainian government protests during the “Revolution of Dignity” culminated in the parliament’s ouster of pro-Russia then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who initially refused to back a free trade agreement and political association deal with the European Union.
The land takeover sparked a protracted conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-western and pro-Russian forces that continued until Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
Witkoff, who parsed his words carefully and appeared keen on refraining from alienating Russia, emphasized the importance of having a “relationship with the leaders of both countries that are involved.”
Zelensky and Trump got into a public feud during negotiations for the pitched mineral deal. Zelensky had initially suggested in September that the US and Ukraine consider such an agreement.
But his team has been apprehensive about the fine details of the deal, prompting ire from Trump, which led to Zelesnky accusing him of living in a “disinformation space.” Then Trump blew up on Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” while implying he was responsible for the war.
Witkoff, when asked about the concessions he’d like to see from Russia to end the war, declined to delve into specifics.
“In any peace deal, each side is going to make concessions, whether it’s territorial concessions, whether it’s economic concessions,” he said. “I think there’s a whole array of things that happen in a deal.”
Witkoff, who is juggling US diplomacy during the Israel-Hamas war, too, also indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interested in moving a ceasefire deal into the next phase.
“I believe the prime minister is well-motivated. He wants to see hostages released,” Witkoff said. “He said what the red line is. And that is that Hamas cannot be involved in a governing body when this thing is resolved. And so I think he’s trying to square the circle on both of those things.”