Trump reveals details of Witkoff’s “long” talks with Putin

US President Donald Trump has publicly revealed for the first time how he sent his special representative, Steve Witkoff, to Moscow for talks with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine.

During a speech in the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – Trump recalled how he instructed Witkoff to participate in attempts to establish direct contacts with the Kremlin amid Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

“Steve is working on the Russian-Ukrainian war. A war that should not have started, which is taking the lives of 7,000 young soldiers. It’s unfortunate. But it happened. I took on this job. I thought this terrible and bloody war would be easy to handle. I thought it would be much easier than what we’ve done here with Israel,” Trump said.

According to the president, he personally organized Witkoff’s meeting with Putin and expected it to be brief and purely protocolary. However, the negotiations dragged on much longer than planned.

“I thought it would be a 15-20 minute meeting. At that time, Stephen didn’t know anything about Russia and Putin, or about politics in general. Then an hour later I called and asked if the meeting was over. They told me no, they were still inside. An hour later I called again – but he was still talking to Putin. I called after three, four hours. After five hours I said: ‘What the hell are you talking about, have you been talking for five hours?’” the US president said.

As you know, on the morning of October 13, US President Donald Trump arrived on a visit to Israel. He landed at Ben Gurion Airport. There, the American leader made a new statement about the war in Gaza, noting that it is over .

The day before, the Palestinian group Hamas released the first group of Israeli hostages – seven people, who have already been handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.