'There were concessions almost immediately made on the part of the Russians in the first meeting in Alaska,' says Steve Witkoff
Russian officials made concessions “almost immediately” during last week’s high-stakes meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, US envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday.
“There were concessions almost immediately made on the part of the Russians in the first meeting in Alaska, and part of getting those concessions was learning whether we were going to be able to see the Russians prepared to be more accommodating,” Witkoff said during an interview with FOX News, without elaborating on the details of the concessions.
Witkoff said the discussions in Anchorage focused on achieving a long-term peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.
“We stayed there for quite some time because we actually made progress on how we might get to a peace deal. A ceasefire deal is very, very easy to break because it doesn't have all the ingredients attached to it,” he said.
“The president began to sense in this meeting in Alaska that we had a lot of the precursors agreed to for a peace deal, so why not pursue an entire peace deal?” he added.
Peace efforts reached an advanced stage after the meeting between Trump and Putin and a follow-up meeting Monday between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington.
Key sticking points reportedly include potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine, with Kyiv and European leaders arguing that any path to a peace deal must start with a ceasefire while the US and Russia advocate for a full peace agreement.
