Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has expressed concern over the potential peace proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which includes the Donetsk region. The Ukrainians are unlikely to accept this offer due to Trump’s force of personality and motivation to end the conflict. Since returning to the White House, Trump has pushed both Ukraine and Russia to agree on a peace deal, but Kyiv and Moscow remain far apart on key concessions, particularly regarding security guarantees and the distribution of territory.
The Russian military has taken nearly all of Luhansk and controls about 75% of Donetsk. Trump has floated the idea of offering U.S. pilots and warplanes as part of security guarantees for Ukraine, and Europeans are willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force. The U.S. has also told European officials that Washington is ready to provide strategic enablers, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), control, command, and air defense assets, to allow for a potential European-led deployment of armed peacekeepers.
Trump advocated for a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House, but the Kremlin has rejected the proposal. Witkoff believes that the president will need to be needed at the table to finish a deal. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, discussing topics such as security guarantees, the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia during the war, and ways to compel Russia to engage in real negotiations and end the three-and-a-half-year war in Eastern Europe.
