Top Trump State Dept. Official Tells Jake Tapper: Ukraine War Wasn’t ‘Necessarily’ Provoked ‘By the Russians’
Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, told CNN Sunday that the war in Ukraine was “provoked” but not “necessarily” by the invading Russians.
The billionaire and top diplomat told Jake Tapper on Sunday’s State of the Union that there was a case to be made that Moscow interpreted talks of Ukraine joining NATO before the invasion as a threat.
Witkoff based that argument on his defense of Trump and others blaming Ukraine – at least partially – for the Russian aggression that has led to countless deaths.
Tapper asked Witkoff to address Americans who feel Trump does not “understand who actually launched this war” and believed the White House was siding with “the bad guys.”
The war, irrespective of who started it, needs to end. Too many people’s lives have been expunged as a result of it, and it just doesn’t make sense to the president,” Wirkoff said. “He wants to be the peacemaking president. Peace through strength. And I don’t blame him, I actually concur.” He added:
The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The president has spoken about this. That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians. And so we have to deal with that fact. And those are real facts on the ground here. But be that as it may, the Russians have indicated that they are responsive to an end to this.
There were very, very what I’ll call cogent and substantive negotiations framed in something that’s called the Istanbul Protocol Agreement. We came very, very close to signing something. And I think we’ll be using that framework as a as a guidepost to get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia. And I think that will be an amazing day
This past week, Witkoff and others met with Russian leaders in a meeting without representatives from Kyiv. Simultaneously, Trump implied Ukraine started the war and attacked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelesnky as a “dictator.”
Watch above via CNN.
