NEW YORK, April 18. /TASS/. US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff has said that at his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he discussed the territorial aspect of the Ukraine conflict, and that the issue could be partially resolved in Russia’s favor.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Witkoff said that "Russia might get some of the regions, but not all." The US envoy also suggested "that Ukraine might care less about some of the regions if they are Russian speaking," the newspaper notes.
According to Witkoff, the territorial issue was the focus of his talks with the Russian leader.
The US presidential envoy told Fox News earlier that he had already held three meetings with Putin. Witkoff noted that their recent talks in St. Petersburg had allowed him to understand that Putin wanted "permanent peace." According to the US envoy, the "so-called five territories" (Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions - TASS) are crucial for resolving the conflict. However, in his words, "there’s so much more to it."
Putin and Witkoff met in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on April 11. The meeting, which lasted over four hours, was focused on the situation in Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly called for resolving the Ukraine conflict, highlighting the need to take Russia’s interests into account when addressing the root causes of the crisis. According to him, this is the only way to establish long-term peace, which is what Moscow wants.