Since he began his second mandate in January 2025, US President Donald Trump has intended to bring to an end the conflict in Ukraine.

In that context, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have been in frequent contact with representatives from both Russia and Ukraine to boost a negotiated solution.

Russian forces have been conducting a military operation since February 24, 2022, to halt Ukrainian shelling of civilian populations in Donetsk and Lugansk, two territories that declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 and joined Russia in September 2022.

The military campaign aims to protect “the peoples of Donetsk and Lugansk from the Ukrainian regime’s genocide, counter national security risks posed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s eastward expansion, and continue until the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine is achieved.

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