US Special Envoy Witkoff disrupted Tomahawk missile deliveries to Ukraine — WSJ
Photo: Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff (Getty Images)
Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy, effectively thwarted the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine by advising Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Vladimir Putin, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The agency notes that, according to a leaked recording of a conversation between Witkoff and Ushakov, the US President's Special Envoy did everything possible to prevent Ukraine from receiving cruise missiles. In particular, Witkoff advised the Russians to ensure that Putin congratulated Trump on reaching a peace agreement in the Gaza Strip.
It was also Witkoff who came up with the idea of arranging a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House. It is already known what Witkoff's actions led to.
The agency notes that Zelenskyy had gone to Washington hoping Trump would sanction the transfer of Tomahawk long-range missiles to Ukraine, weapons that would put many Russian targets within Kyiv’s reach. However, it reported that during a conversation on October 16, Putin had warned Trump that sending Tomahawks would escalate the war and harm US-Russian relations, according to Ushakov.
It was after Putin's call that Trump refused to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine, citing a reduction in stocks of American missiles. The real reason for this change of position was Witkoff's actions.
White House protecting a Russian agent?
Amid the scandal surrounding the leak of recordings of conversations between Witkoff and Ushakov, the White House unexpectedly came to the defense of Trump's Special Envoy. In particular, they did not deny the authenticity of the transcript. Moreover, they praised Vitkoff for his actions.
"You know, because he's got to sell this to Ukraine. He's got to sell Ukraine to Russia. That's what he is. That's what a dealmaker does," Trump said.
At the same time, American politicians have a completely different opinion. Many members of the US Congress and politicians are outraged not so much by the fact that the US Special Envoy's conversation was leaked, but by his advice to Ushakov. Among other things, some influential Republicans have openly called Witkoff a Russian agent and a traitor.
On November 26, Bloomberg revealed transcripts of Witkoff's conversations with Ushakov, in which Trump's Special Envoy advised Putin's aide on how to present Russian proposals for peace in Ukraine to the US President.
And it seems that the peace plan itself could have been entirely Russian, despite desperate attempts by the Americans to pass it off as their own creation. This is evidenced by the published transcript of a conversation between Ushakov and the so-called special representative of Putin, Kirill Dmitriev.
The latter, by the way, hastily and hysterically declared that the agency's material was allegedly fake. At the same time, the authenticity of the leaked transcript of the negotiations was confirmed directly by Yuri Ushakov himself.
