President Donald Trump’s envoy traveled to Moscow on Friday to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The talks followed a car bombing outside the city.
The Russian news agency TASS reports that Witkoff and Putin spoke for three hours. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, described the talks as positive. “President Putin’s meeting with Steven Witkoff in Moscow. We are making progress,” he said.
Witkoff has met with Putin four times during Trump’s first three months in office. Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his top priorities on the campaign trail.
According to CNN, the President has privately expressed that ending the war in Ukraine is more difficult than he anticipated. Trump has criticized both Ukrainian President Zelensky and Putin publicly in recent days.
Zelensky rebuffed Trump’s proposal that Kiev make territorial concessions to end the war. The President responded by lashing out at the Ukrainian leader.
Trump is also facing pushback from America’s European allies. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are pressing Trump not to force Ukraine to sign a deal with Russia.
An additional challenge to Trump’s goal of ending the war is the ongoing fighting. In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded to a Russian missile strike in Ukraine by posting, “Vladimir, STOP!” He added the attack was “very bad timing.”
Shortly before the talks between Putin and Witkoff kicked off, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik was killed by a car bomb in Balashikha, a city near Moscow. Ukraine has conducted several similar bombings in Russia throughout the war.
Still, in a statement to the press as the talks between Witkoff and Putin were ongoing, Trump expressed to reporters believed a deal was close. “They’re meeting with Putin right now as we speak. And we have a lot of things going on. And I think, in the end, we’re going to end up with a lot good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals.”
“We’re going make our country rich, but we’re gonna try and get out of war so that we can save 5,000 people a week.” The President added, “And that’s what my aim is. I want to save 5,000 young men. They happen to be mostly Ukrainian, Russian. 5,000 young Ukrainian and Russian men and that’s that’s a big honor if I could do it.”
Recently, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have argued that a deal must happen quickly, and the White House was prepared to move on from ending the war if no agreement appeared possible.
Trump appeared to walk that back in his remarks to the press, stressing there was no deadline. “I think I think we’re pretty close. [There is] no deadline, I just want to do it as fast as possible,” he said.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute. He hosts The Kyle Anzalone Show and is co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Connor Freeman.
IDK, it seems to me that the West are negotiating among themselves and not agreeing to anything at all. I have no idea what "progress" could they make when even the USA, which seems the most willing actor, is so far from even approximating Russian demands. Vide: https://www.rt.com/news/616288-reuters-trump-peace-plan/
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/616225-final-offer-end-ukraine-conflict/
TLDW. Care to provide an abstract?
In a nutshell that Trump's plan is incomplete because it doesn't address Russia's concerns and that he keeps sending Witkoff back to Moscow again and again with the same incomplete plan.
None of that comes as a surprise, does it?
I wonder what Trump and Zelensky discussed in the Saint Peter’s Basilica? I see in the footage idiots Macron and Starmer eagerly meddling, it can't be good.
I ended up listening or rather passively hearing it as background chat but didn’t feel that they said much.
But sure: the negotiations seem to be largely facade of good will, by both sides. Russia probably hopes that the USA disengages and that they have to deal with a weakened Ukraine as result. As for Trump and Zelensky: they seem to have discussed “raw earths” again and not agreeing… again, vide: https://www.rt.com/news/616344-trump-ukraine-minerals-immediately/
Ukraine surely sees the USA disengaging any day and thus, as scenified in the infamous White House press conference, is not interested in caving to Trump greedy demands, more so when it seems to be backed by most European countries, which so far have backed Ukraine more than the USA in many aspects. All the European chieftains surely want the USA to remain engaged anyhow but the USA will probably pull out eventually.
I don't see the US disengaging. I think military cooperation will continue, intelligence sharing, and many other things. What won't happen anymore is Congress voting multi-billion dollar aid packages for Ukraine; the Europeans will have to step up to the plate.
But the war will continue because it's not a clown macabre conducting diplomacy as a theater of the absurd that will end it.
Maybe you’re right but Putin is at least buttering Trump, while Zelensky is rather antagonizing him. Trump is not anymore under establishment supervision and is in crash course with most of Europe (all but three Bannonists or neofascists: Italy, Hungary and maybe Austria as well), not just on Ukraine but on trade/tariffs, on Greenland and even on Canada (which let’s not forget used to be a British colony and doubles as former French colony still speaking French to a very large extent).
The USA has massive interests in Europe: military bases, traditionally loyal allies, economic and spy penetration, shared imperialist policies, a balanced trade partner (EU exports more physical goods to the USA but the USA exports more services to the EU), etc. However Trump in his parochial ignorance and arrogance of TV starlet without guidance (Reagan was also from the show business and an ignoramus but at least he was articulated and could play his role properly, even dummy Bush Jr. was guided by a perverse cabal of Nixonians, while zombie Biden was also under close control of another cabal: the Straussians) seems determined to make NATO implode and fully alienate Europe from Ukraine to Britain.
Nobody seems to control Trump this second term and that’s bad, because he’s a poker player who likes to bluff, not a statesman, much less one who can be trusted with a fragile and decadent global empire.
I’ve pondered many times about which could be the weakest link that could make NATO implode: I considered France because of its very restive populace, Spain because of its Yugoslavia-style ethnic complexity and conflicts, Morocco (not technically in NATO but almost so) because of its poverty, exploitation and West Saharan imperialist war… but now I think it will be the USA just pulling out, de jure or de facto, not without first creating total chaos in the Middle East and losing several aircraft carriers in the process, including Israel.
That's kind of what I was thinking too. Trump's an erratic moron who doesn't seem to understand the real issues, his ideologically mismatched team is never on the same page, the Europeans are desperately trying to sabotage peace for reason of their own insanity… that's not a recipe for success regardless of what Putin and Witkoff may have agreed in Moscow.
What is your plan?
My plan is to block you since you’re not adding anything intelligent to the discussion.
Trump does understand the real issues. His zionist handlers have no doubt explained his job to him. The whole war was contrived to punish Russia for interfering with the "greater Israel" agenda. Problem is they are losing and NATO weakness is exposed. Maybe they will no longer be effective mafia enforcers supporting petrodollars.
You care to explain exactly how Russia was interfering with the "greater Israel" agenda?
Short vid from years ago: "Russia Halts Greater Israel":
I’m not sure I buy this. Russia’s intervention in Syria was not to stop a “Greater Israel.” Instead, it was to help an ally and especially – I think – to thwart American imperialists using Islamic terrorists based in Syria to attack the Caucasus and start another Chechen-style Islamic insurrection.
As for the Russia-Ukraine war, I see it as a simple issue of American imperialism, nothing to do with “Greater Israel.”
Thanks I had not seen this.
As Edward Snowden and others exposed, ISIS was a CIA-MOSSAD terrorist army (rebranded Al Qaeda) sent to "take out" Assad in Syria while Obama and Hillary pretended to fight them. I say "take out" because that was the term used by General Wesley Clark who was told right after 911 that the neocons under W. Bush/Cheney planned to take out 7 countries in 5 years. All the countries on the list were countries where the Yinon plan for Greater Israel called for conquest including Syria, a Russian ally. ISIS head choppers murdered thousands of Syrians on TV and occupied half of Syria until Putin almost comically volunteered to "help" the US with our ridiculous War on Terror. He sent the Russian Air Force to bomb ISIS which was mostly destroyed along with hundreds of trucks stealing oil from Syrian wells. How could Obama object without publicly claiming ownership of ISIS. Hillary wanted a no-fly zone like in Libya (also on the list) but that would have been a direct confrontation with Russia. The attack on Syria was abandoned. The CIA contrived Ukraine coup and NATO proxy war to punish Russia followed soon after.
I know all that about Syria, but I still don't buy your conclusion that it lead to the Ukraine situation.
I mean, I'm sure that Russia's intervention in Syria created animus in Washington DC, but even greater animus towards Russia existed long before.
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with NATO's eastward expansion which started meditatively after the Warsaw Pact disbanded (1991).
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with Putin taking power in 2000 and immediately reversing idiot Yeltin's foreign policy from America's obedient puddle to an independent state with its own foreign policy and interests.
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with Putin's 2007 Munich Security Conference address.
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with the first US coup in Ukraine which was the Orange Revolution is 2004-2005.
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with America's unipolar world created after the collapse of communism in 1991.
"Greater Israel" and Syria had nothing to do with Russophobia that started with the cold war. And before that with the October Revolution.
If there's a progress it's moving at a turtle pace until Russian demands are met which is also not good for Ukraine…!
What is your plan?????
No more of that ridiculous "For as long as it takes!" BS that we got under the last democrat regime.
Yeah, it didn't take much to be an improvement over that stupidity.
“We’re going make our country rich, but we’re gonna try and get out of war so that we can save 5,000 people a week.” The President added, “And that’s what my aim is. I want to save 5,000 young men. They happen to be mostly Ukrainian, Russian. 5,000 young Ukrainian and Russian men and that’s that’s a big honor if I could do it.”
While not giving a flying fuck about those brown people dying in Gaza.
Because he's a fucking racist and brown people – be they Gazans or Latin American immigrants – are not humans.
Because he's a fucking racist and brown people – be they Palestinians or Latin American immigrants – are not humans as far as he's concerned.
The US govt and Trump don’t care about Ukrainians either. If they had, they never would’ve used them as pawns to weaken Russia. This includes genocide Joe.
Having lost the war of sanctions and blood, the govt turns its hopes to hoodwinking Russia so they can weaken ties with Iran and especially China (whose economic power they fear the most).
Russia will not accept Trump's neocon plan since it only addresses two of five demands. But the Russians are smart enough to talk and say positive things in contrast to Zelensky whose handlers in Brussels told him to give Trump the finger.
Apr 27, 2025 Vladimir Putin Announces the Complete Liberation of the Kursk Region – April 2025 English Subtitles
Russian President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin held a videoconference report by Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov on the complete expulsion of the Ukrainian formations which had invaded the Kursk Region.
https://youtu.be/HFqhzpp1LM0?si=gPVCyhsV4AAffEcf
While it is not too complicated to understand what Russia wants, it is completely opaque when it comes to “what Ukraine wants”. Since we do not know what or who is “Ukraine”.
The oresident and his government (prime minister and other ministers are the most hated people in Ukraine, something Zelensky run polls will never reveal.
The intesity of hate skyrocketed after the violence against Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the non-Christian president changing by governmetal fiat the date Cheistmas is observed to European date.
And by forcing upon them State founded fake Orthodox Church of Ukraine. And if you want to keep your job, attend this “church”.
All interviews of “the people in the street” shown in Western media are staged. All the inteviewes are state spokespeople. This is not too hard to see. All such interviewees are always eloquent in English and cover all Ukrainian talking points.
Zelenski was brought to power by oligarchs and kept there by not just Ukrainuan oligarchs but many like-minded international.
On the other hand, his non-civilian ministries are controlled by West Ukrainiian exreme nationalists.
They may wear Nazi symbols – but let us not get distracted by this show. Most of them are the product of the carefully nurtured class of former Soviet Union “dissidents “, in the same manner Polish and other East European cadres that came to power after the break up of Soviet Union.
Their cover was “anti-communism”, but they were carefully selected due to their ideological ties to Nazi collaborators and sympathisers. Why did Western intelligence recruit ideoligical Nazi sympathisers to undermine Soviet Unuon as “dissidents”?
Because thise are the most vulnerable and silenced in Post WWII , and looking for revenge. At the same time easily blackmailable and easily thrown under the bus as Nazi should they become inconvenient .
There are many ideoligically Nazi revanshists now in governmenrs from Poland to Baltics to EU Structures. And most importantly, their anti-communism laurels were easily ditched for a more authentiic ideology — Russophobia.
These are now Zelenski’s preatorian guards — he cannot put a foot wrong and stay alive.
So what exactly is “Ukraine”? Who soeaks on behalf of Ukraine? The relatives of the dead people — those Zelenski did not allow to withdraw and instead condemned to death not giving a fig for Ukrainians he was well known for despising. ,Are real Ukrainians those families hiding their men in cellars ?
This is a society in deep crisis. Only a thin layer of bureacracy, law enforcement, security agencies and media shields the regime of odd bedfellows — each thinking of their own escape when inevitable happens.
They will either crack under immebse domestivmc pressure, or eventually surrender to Russian forces.
It is already obvious that Trump, despite professed interest to bail out of “Biden’s war” — cannot really do much.
He cannot influence Zelenski regime as many oligarchs behind him are US, not only European oligarchs. And the network of support for West Ukrainian Russophobic contingent is powerful both in Europe and here in US.
The war will go on, and any concessions on either side would be temporary.
It is becayse neither Europe nor US are ready to concede that Russia won. It is too early to cellbrate Trump’s peace. Hope it happens and allows US to extracate itself fromnexpense and the albatross around its neck.
This however may still evolve into a wider war.
The reason can be sunned up as follows. Western powers cannot distinguish between a push and a push back.
Traditionally, Western push provoking a pushback was typicaly a welcome develooment “proving” the agressivenes of the “otherness”
What is transpiring is an anomaly. Russian pushback in Ukraine — highly desirable and anticipated — and the massive US-UK-EU response did not bring about the projected gains.
Not in weakening Russia’s economy or military. And far from bringing about Russia’s strategic defeat — Russia has more global influence today than it did before the conflict in Ukraine. And geographically won the most strategic of all prizes — land connection between Russia and Crimea.
Is the escallation the next phase.
Escallation by Russia as peace efforts falter? Or escallation by NATO — as Russian gains are unacceptable.
Or will another theater of conflict be opened?
By NATO to drag in Russia into a conflict such as theaening its North South Corridor accross Iran that is not in danger of NATO countries blocking its tranport (such as theeats in Baltic or Black Sea).
Or escallation by Russia doing nothing or even facilitating Turkish -Israel conflict? Or facilitating the separation of US from its client Egypt by bringing in China in a big way. Another development not to Israel’s liking.
Yes, there are ways for Ukraiian conflict to create a sequel, another diversion or a new “push” not properly evaluating the push-back.
Or things may calm down after Musk — having engaged in shouting matches with just about everyone in Trump’s administration — finally leaves White House?
Bianca always seems to drag out the truth. She’s onto their game & ours!!
"Trump is …facing pushback from…European allies. NATO Secretary General…Rutte and EC President…von der Leyen are pressing Trump not to force Ukraine to sign a deal with Russia."
Rutte is fine "forc[ing] Ukraine" to lower its draft age to 18 in return for more US weapons – just not "forc[ing]" a settlement:
"Blinken says Ukraine needs to get younger people fighting Russia" (Reuters, 12/4/24)
"NATO chief Mark Rutte voiced the same general view. 'We have to make sure, obviously, also that enough people are available within Ukraine,' Rutte told reporters. 'We need probably more people to move to the front line.'"