According to him, the United States continues to make progress and is sending Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the son-in-law of the head of the White House, Jared Kushner, to negotiations to help the parties develop a rather complex agreement.
Whitaker noted there was “good news” over the weekend.
“I think we're making significant progress. But at the same time, it takes both sides. President Trump understands how to put pressure on the Russians and the Ukrainians to get this deal done and to keep moving forward. And, you know, I'm optimistic. I'm hopeful,” the US ambassador to NATO said.
At the same time, Whitaker warned that at some point Trump may decide that it is impossible to achieve a peace deal between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
Then the US President may abandon his peace initiatives, the diplomat added.
Context
The Ukrainian and US delegations have already held seven rounds of negotiations on a “peace plan” for resolving the Russian-Ukrainian war. In parallel, the American side is holding discussions on the same issue with the aggressor country of the Russian Federation.
In particular, on December 2, the illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vitkoff and Kushner at negotiations in Moscow for about five hours discussed several projects of the “peace plan” to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war, Putin’s assistant Yuri Ushakov reported after the meeting. According to him, “no compromise was found” on the territorial issue. One of the main issues at the negotiations was Ukraine’s membership in NATO, Ushakov noted.
On December 3, Trump expressed the opinion that Putin “would like to end the war.” However, on December 4, Putin said that the Russian Federation would allegedly “in any case” seize the Ukrainian Donbass and the territories of southern Ukraine – “militarily or otherwise.” Putin's new statements indicate that he does not intend to retreat from his maximalist goals in the war against Ukraine, Politico explained.
The media reported that there are three pillars on which the Russian Federation will not agree to a compromise in peace negotiations on Ukraine: the territory of Donbass, limiting the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine by America and Europe.
Ukrainian Head of State Vladimir Zelensky, in an interview published on December 8, said that elements of the US plan require further discussion of a number of “sensitive issues,” in particular regarding territorial issues and security guarantees for Ukraine.
