US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that efforts to prevent further escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine are “somewhat under control”, with the comments coming hours after his special envoy Steve Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin as a “great” leader.
In an interview to Outkick’s Clay Travis on Air Force One, Trump said that “rational discussions” and maintaining good relations with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky are significant to ending the war, a Reuters report said.
Last week, the US president held separate talks with Putin and Zelensky, aiming to bring an end to the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, the talks resulted in Putin agreeing to stop Russian attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and Zelensky agreeing on accepting such a pause.
The White House had termed this as the first step towards peace. “Both (Trump and Putin) leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace. The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people,” it said.
Putin ‘not a bad guy’: Trump envoy
Earlier, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff gave a glowing appreciation to Putin, describing him as trustworthy and a great leader. He said that the Russian leader prayed for his “friend” Trump when he was shot.
Witkoff met with Putin last week in Moscow and later told media that the talks between the two were constructive and “solution-based”.
He said that Putin was not a “bad guy”, adding that he was a “great” leader seeking to end Moscow’s three-year-long conflict with Ukraine. “I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,” Witkoff said during an interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it,” the Trump envoy said.
Additionally, Witkoff said that Putin also told him a story about how when US President Donald Trump was shot last year during a campaign, “he (Putin) went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president”.
“Not because… he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” Witkoff was cited as saying by AFP.
The Trump envoy also mentioned that Zelensky was facing tough choices ahead and that the Ukrainian president should recognize that it is time for him to “get a deal done” with Russia.
Zelensky is “in a very, very difficult situation, but he’s up against a nuclear nation,” Witkoff said. “So he’s got to know that he’s going to get ground down. Now is the best time for him to get a deal done.”
(with inputs from agencies)
