Witkoff declines to blame Russia for starting war in Ukraine

Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russia should not necessarily be blamed for sparking the war in Ukraine — a position that aligns with President Donald Trump’s recent strikes against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the three-year anniversary of the fighting looms.

“The war didn’t need to happen — it was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” Witkoff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Witkoff suggested that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO instigated the war.

“There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. … That didn’t need to happen,” he said. “It basically became a threat to the Russians and so we have to deal with that fact.”

Witkoff’s remarks to host Jake Tapper follow his return from Saudi Arabia, where he along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and national security adviser Mike Waltz, oversaw negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict last week. These discussions did not include any Ukrainian officials, who say they were not invited to the meetings. Ukraine said it would not accept a deal imposed on them, particularly one that concedes Russian-occupied territory.

Last week, Trump further raised fears about the United States cozying up to Russia with a tirade of attacks on Zelenskyy. In a post to the social media platform Truth Social, Trump argued that the U.S. was swindled into spending billions to aid Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion and called Zelenskyy a “Dictator without Elections” who “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

When asked about the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments on Saturday about Trump feeling he could get Russia to agree to a deal as soon as this week, Witkoff expressed confidence in that idea.

“Our conversations in Saudi Arabia with the secretary of state and with the national security adviser were, in my view, positive, constructive and clearly momentum-building. So, I would say that I’m optimistic and positive, just as the president is that we can get something done rather quickly.”

He added: “Deals only work, Jake, when they’re good for all the parties and that’s that’s the pathway that we’re on here.”