Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff has rejected Keir Starmer's peace plans for Ukraine as “a posture and a pose” as he praised Vladimir Putin as a “smart guy”.
The British prime minister suggested a “coalition of the willing” of several European and Nato nations keen on providing military assistance and boots on the ground to Ukraine after a ceasefire.
"I think it's a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic. There is this sort of notion that we have all got to be like Winston Churchill. Russians are going to march across Europe. That is preposterous by the way. We have something called Nato that we did not have in World War Two,” Mr Witkoff told Tucker Carlson in an interview.
He also praised Mr Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president.“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart,” Mr Witkoff told far-right commentator Tucker Carlson. "I just don't see that he wants to take all of Europe,” Mr Witkoff said, calling it a much different situation than the Second World War.
Ukraine ceasefire talks: What will be discussed in Saudi Arabia as Trump pushes for truce by Easter?
Starmer praises ‘good relationship’ with Trump hours before US envoy slams PM’s peace plan
Trump’s special envoy praises ‘super smart’ Putin ahead of Ukraine ceasefire talks
Russian drone pilots hunting Ukrainians on the streets ‘like a computer game’
Russian authorities bring in trains to fight oil depot fire
Authorities in southern Russia's Krasnodar region brought in firefighting trains loaded with water yesterday to help battle a blaze still raging at an oil depot following a Ukrainian drone attack.
Regional officials, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya, where the fire first broke out last Tuesday.
Firefighters were tackling a fire still burning at one of the tanks at the site covering 1,250 square metres (13,500 square feet) while also trying to cool other equipment at the site.
The statement said 473 firefighters and 189 pieces of equipment were engaged in the operation. On Friday, depressurisation of the burning tank triggered an explosion and the release of burning oil.
Reports on Friday said the fire covered some 10,000 square metres.
Russia's foreign ministry said this week the attack amounted to a violation of a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the more than three-year-old war, agreed between Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump.
The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Putin decree impacting civilians in occupied Ukraine part of ‘Russification policy’, warns Britain
A decree signed by Vladimir Putin this week which orders Ukrainians living in territory illegally occupied by Russia to “settle their legal status” by 10 September represents a new wave of the Kremlin’s “Russification policy”, British officials have warned.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said: “Putin’s decree is almost certainly intended to force the departure from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Ukrainian nationals who refuse to accept Russian passport and citizenship,.
“Putin and the Russian senior leadership continue to prosecute a Russification policy in illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, as part of longstanding efforts to extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood.
“Russia erroneously and illegally defines both occupied and unoccupied Ukrainian territory in the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, as well as Crimea, as being part of the Russian Federation. This is in direct contradiction with Russia’s own stated recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as broader international recognition of Ukraine.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
0Comments