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Race Car Drivers Should Not Pretend To Be Neurosurgeons
The real estate developer that today’s Washington has picked as the lead in negotiations with Putin’s Russian Federation regarding “peace” in the region has said that the “elephant in the room” regarding any future deal is whether Ukraine will cede territories illegally occupied by Russia.
Over the weekend, he has appeared in numerous places offering unfortunate quotes.
But during his genuinely cringe-worthy interview with Tucker Carlson, not the least of which was his sadly obsequious estimation of Putin, the real estate developer exposed his own lack of qualifications to serve America’s vital national security interests in these strange negotiations.
CNN
US envoy says ‘elephant in the room’ in peace talks is whether Ukraine will cede occupied regions
By Christian Edwards, CNN
Published 10:28 AM EDT, Sat March 22, 2025
CNN —
The biggest obstacle to resolving Russia’s war in Ukraine is the status of Crimea and the four mainland Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia, said US special envoy Steve Witkoff, calling them “the elephant in the room” in peace talks. [Maybe in New York real estate circles this would be considered a profound statement. However, to anyone with an understanding of Russia’s aggressive, unilateral, unprovoked war against Ukraine, the realities of the region, and with a genuine grasp of moral clarity, this statement indicates profound ignorance. The obstacle to ending this war is Russia, of getting the Russian Federation out of all of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, out of area located within the internationally recognized borders of 1991, borders to which the then newly formed Russian Federation agreed. This Administration, apparently, has yet to understand the most basic: Russia does not have and never had any legitimate claim to Ukraine’s territory, despite Putin’s deepest desire, and the war would be over tomorrow if Russian forces simply left Ukraine. RAM]
In a long interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, Witkoff – who also revealed Russia’s President Putin had commissioned a portrait of Donald Trump and sent it to him – said the administration was making progress “that no one thought was possible” with Russia, but that issues of territory still need ironing out. [Oh please, Putin is playing the You. RAM]
The four mainland regions, which Witkoff appeared to struggle to name and needed prompting from Carlson, were illegally annexed during Russia’s full-scale invasion, and Kyiv vehemently opposes giving them up. [Hello, where to begin? Crimea, Luhansk, and Donbas were invaded and occupied long before the “full-scale invasion” in 2022. Does Witkoff even know this war is 11 years old? Does he know, does it matter to him, that the entire war violates numerous treaties, agreements, the U.N. Charter, the Budapest Memorandum, and more? Does it matter that the barbaric aggressor is being allowed a precedent foreshadowing greater international upheaval? Apparently, this “vision” of this New York real estate developer who are now forming U.S. defense and foreign policy sees only the boundaries of geographic dirt as the issue. In truth, Russian occupation, more importantly, includes genocidal abduction of children, rape, torture including genital mutilation, torture chambers for POWS, execution of civilians, forced deportation and resettlement of adults in internment camps. Does any of this register in today’s Washington? In another interview he simply said he trusts Putin when Putin says he is not interested in more. There is a long history of mistakes by people who trusted Putin. RAM]
The Kremlin has since staged referenda on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Kyiv and the international community decried as a propaganda exercise, but which Witkoff claimed was evidence of their desire to split from Ukraine.
“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.” [I do not use the Lord’s name in vain, but please, Dear God, save us from this genuine, even unimaginable, ignorance! By now, one would think even a New York real estate developer might have learned Putin’s “Russian-speaking” line is intended for only the most uninformed audience. For Witkoff’s edification: (a) In the Soviet Union, Russian was the mandated language. Ukrainian, for example, while spoken, was discouraged and not official language for education, government, employment. Everyone in the Soviet Union knew, spoke, and wrote Russian, and (b) in interviews with the Ukrainian soldiers fighting the Russian Federation, Witkoff (and Carlson) would learn that many of them speak in Russian. As an anecdote from Ukraine goes: Babusia Marusia – “I hear the Americans think that just because we can speak Russia means that we must belong to Russia.” Babusia Nusia – “Does that mean that the Americans think that because they speak English they must belong to England?” As for the phony referendums, call them what they are “Kalashnikov referendums.” Armed and masked Russian soldiers standing inside polling sites is a guarantee of intimidation and purposefully skewed results. And what? Witkoff doesn’t know this most basic of tenets – presumed intimidation and coercion impacts the validity (or invalidity) of any votes, referendums, or polls in illegally occupied territories and conflict zones? Why is Washington sending the ill-informed to deal with Putin? The ignorance and disrespect being shown by Americans, Europeans, and Ukrainians are more than unseemly; it is dangerous. If Witkoff wants honest voting results for Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson show him the 1991 referendum of Ukrainian independence results. Voters favored independence in each of these oblasts by more than 80%! Furthermore, Russia has been actively deporting Ukrainian citizens from all occupied territories and sending them to internment/re-education camps deep inside Russia, in turn, bringing people in from Russia to settle the occupied territories, some of whom have lived there for less than a year. Finally, the obvious bears repeating: if you are living on Ukrainian territory and genuinely want to live in Russia, then move to Russia. RAM]
[Map showing the percentages for independence by oblast during December 1, 1991, referendum on independence. Ukraine achieved independence peacefully but in 2014 Putin and the Russian Federation started forcing the people of Ukraine to fight for that independence. If anything, his genocidal war has raised these percentages. RAM]
CNN has previously reported that voting in the regions has been carried out at gunpoint, with one resident saying the results were a foregone conclusion. [Witkoff does not know, does not care, or ignores. However, publicly using those phony votes to explain his position is pathetic and sad. RAM]
Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy who also plays a key role in talks with Russia, said the “constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede… with regard to territory” had become “the elephant in the room” during negotiations. Talks are set to resume Monday in Saudi Arabia, with US officials set to meet officials from both Russia and Ukraine.
“The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?” Witkoff asked. “Can (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict.” [This is not the central issue in the conflict. This claim is a straight-out projection of Putin’s desire. Should anyone, including an American, survive scorn if they suggest, “those are Russian territories”? With his position, Witkoff is de facto endorsing international aggression. Is this now the new American foreign policy stance? RAM]
Zelensky stressed last weekend that Ukraine’s position “is that we do not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian.”
The US raised the issue during talks with Ukrainian delegates in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Zelensky said, adding that he hopes the question can be resolved during later peace talks, rather than discussions over an initial ceasefire. “It is dragging out the process for a long, long time,” he said.
‘Gracious’ Putin
Witkoff said he was impressed by how “gracious” the Russian leader has been during the pair’s discussions, praising him as “smart” and “straightforward.” [Again: ignorance? lack of embarrassment? both? Does Witkoff grasp that he was sitting across from a genocidal killer? Does he know who he is dealing with? Does he care? “Gracious” is not the word thousands-upon-thousands of dead Ukrainians, Russians, Chechens, and others would use. This is not high tea with your grandmother. RAM]
Before meeting Putin in Moscow, Witkoff said someone in the Trump administration warned him to “watch it, because he’s an ex-KGB guy,” referring to Putin’s former career in the Soviet Union’s security agency.
Witkoff said he downplayed the person’s fears, saying Putin’s background in the agency was a measure of his intelligence. “In the old days, the only people who went into the KGB were the smartest people in the nation… He’s a super smart guy,” he recalled saying. [Being smart does not necessarily mean benign and KGB officers were not benign, and Putin has proved time and again he is a dangerous murderer. RAM]
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy,” Witkoff said, saying it was “gracious” of the Russian leader to receive him in Moscow for talks earlier this month.
That meeting “got personal,” he said, recalling how Putin “had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist,” which Witkoff took home to the president. [Yawsa, Witkoff, listen up - there’s this bridge in Brooklyn! RAM]
Witkoff said also that, following the assassination attempt against Trump in September, Putin said that he “went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed” for Trump, “not because he… could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him.”
Trump was “clearly touched” by Putin’s story and the portrait, Witkoff said. [Ah, well, goshie-gosh, that is reassuring. RAM]
Witkoff implied that resolving the war in Ukraine could lead to cooperation on a broader range of issues and that the two sides were thinking about “integrating their energy policies in the Arctic,” sharing sea lanes, collaborating on artificial intelligence, and sending liquefied natural gas “into Europe together.”
“Who doesn’t want to have a world where Russia and the United States are doing, collaboratively, good things together?” he asked. [Anyone who is disinclined to be bound with the Devil. The entire approach is wrong and ill-fated. For decades, Moscow, first as the USSR, now as Russia, has proclaimed clearly and publicly over and over that the United States is the enemy. Yet, our current government chooses to ignore this fact. In turn, Russia – our enemy -- is at its weakest point in decades, engaged in a war that it started unilaterally and currently, conceivably, could be defeated – beaten – by Ukraine, would that we recognize our own vital national security interests in providing Ukraine with what it needs to win. If this negotiation nonsense continues to a favorable Russian conclusion, history, and our future reality will not be kind to Washington’s current, fundamentally naïve approach. As an endnote: during the same interview with Carlson, Witkoff stated that he thinks that Hamas “isn’t ideologically intractable” and that the Gaza conflict can end “through dialogue.” With that degree of unworldly insight, Witkoff is exactly the kind of American negotiator Putin can love. RAM]
ROBERT MCCONNELL
Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network
The introduction and parenthetical comments are Mr. McConnell’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN).