Trump Calls Witkoff’s Meeting With Putin ‘Reasonably Good’

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said a meeting between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin was “reasonably good” but acknowledged he doesn’t know what the outcome will be after successive rounds of talks over a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine.

“What comes out of that meeting? I can’t tell you, because it does take two to tango,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I think we have something pretty well worked out with them — very satisfied.”

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Trump has continued to push for a truce between Russia and Ukraine even though a series of talks in recent days over a 28-point peace proposal have been inconclusive. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin had “very useful” talks with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, but there was still no deal.

That came after Witkoff and Russian intermediaries had discussed the 28-point plan, which was seen as favoring Russia’s position with its insistence that Ukraine give up territory, cap the size of its military and forswear membership in NATO.

Ukraine and its European allies pushed back on that proposal, and the US and Ukraine whittled it down, though the most recent version hasn’t been publicly released. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Ukrainian officials in Florida over the weekend on the proposals aimed at reaching a deal to end Russia’s full-scale invasion after almost four years of fighting.

Witkoff and Kushner will meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday to continue the discussions, according to a White House official.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with his negotiating team in Ireland on Tuesday to receive a “detailed briefing” on the Florida talks.

“I am ready to receive all signals, ready to meet with President Trump — everything depends on today’s talks,” he told reporters in Dublin. “The dialogues can continue, but results are needed.”

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said Witkoff and Kushner believed Putin wants to end the war. European officials and many experts have argued that’s not the case, saying Putin continues to make incremental gains and doesn’t have an incentive to stop the war.

“He would like to end the war, that was their impression,” Trump said. “I think he’d like to get back to dealing a more normal life. I think he’d like to be trading with the United States of America, frankly, instead of, you know, losing thousands of soldiers a week. But their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal.”