WSJ reveals how Witkoff disrupted Tomahawk missile deliveries to Ukraine

In October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Washington, hoping to secure American Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Ukrainian military planned to use them to disable Russian refineries, aiming to push Moscow toward negotiations on more favorable terms.

However, a day before Zelenskyy's arrival, US President Donald Trump spoke with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and subsequently decided not to provide the Tomahawk missiles. Instead, Witkoff suggested a different approach to Ukrainian officials.

"What good was a handful of missiles going to accomplish?" WSJ quotes Witkoff as saying.

He advised Ukraine to ask Trump to exempt the country from US tariffs for 10 years. According to Witkoff, "it would supercharge their economy."

"I'm in the deal settlement business. That's why I'm here. We keep on knocking at the door and coming up with ideas," Witkoff told the WSJ.

Why Witkoff may have blocked Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine

In October, it was expected that following Zelenskyy's White House visit, the US would provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles.

Just over a week before the visit, Trump indicated that he had practically decided on the missiles and hinted he would likely deliver them to Kyiv.

After speaking with Putin ahead of Zelenskyy's trip, Trump announced a second peace summit with the Russian leader in Budapest. The missiles were never delivered to Ukraine, and although preparations for the summit began, they were soon canceled as Moscow refused to soften its maximalist demands for ending the war.

By November, the US presented Ukraine with a new peace plan, which, later, emerged as having been drafted with Russian input, if not entirely by Russia. It was later revealed that the 28-point document had been prepared by Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in coordination with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Bloomberg released more details about the plan, including a leaked transcript of Witkoff's conversation with Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov. In the transcript, Witkoff guided Russia on how to present its peace proposals to Trump and pushed for a US-Russia leaders' meeting to take place before Zelenskyy's visit, which happened as he suggested.

Bloomberg also released a transcript of a conversation between Ushakov and Dmitriev, in which Dmitriev indicated he would share the Russian peace plan with the Americans. The discussion reportedly took place weeks before the US presented the plan to Ukraine.

For more details on the Witkoff conversation leak, read RBC-Ukraine's report.