Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused US envoy Steve Witkoff of “disseminating Russian narratives,” after the American diplomat made controversial comments about occupied parts of Ukraine.
Speaking during a news conference Thursday, Zelensky accused Witkoff of taking the “strategy of the Russian side.”
“I think it is very dangerous because he is consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, disseminating Russian narratives. In any case, it does not help,” he said.
Witkoff touted his recent talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin — his third meeting with the Russian leader — in an interview with Fox News on Monday, describing the meeting as “compelling.”
Witkoff told Fox News that any peace deal in Ukraine will center on the “so-called five territories,” referring to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in 2014, and the four mainland Ukrainian regions Russia has occupied since its full-scale invasion in 2022 – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Some background: These four regions were illegally annexed during Russia’s full-scale invasion and Kyiv vehemently opposes giving them up. The Kremlin has since staged referendums on joining Russia in those regions, which were widely dismissed as a sham by the international community.
CNN has previously reported that voting in the regions had been carried out at gunpoint, with one resident saying the results were a foregone conclusion.
Witkoff’s comments on Monday prompted accusations that he was trying to parrot Moscow’s line. Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, told CNN Tuesday that Witkoff “with all due respect… may be inadvertently trying to push pro-Russian narratives.”
Remember: It’s not the first time Witkoff has been accused of echoing Kremlin talking points. Last month, in a long interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, Witkoff praised a “gracious” Putin and dismissed longstanding concerns across Europe that Putin would seek to invade further territory if given the opportunity. He also claimed that referendums in the four mainland regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia showed the “overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”
