Donald Trump’s top diplomatic goon just lavished praise on a man responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths as “a humanitarian.”
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” U.S. envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff, 69, told Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
“You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,” the envoy, a real estate tycoon and Hofstra University graduate, went on. “I commend you, and I thank you again,” he went on. Pro-Kremlin outlets quickly circulated his comments online.
Russian strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure killed three people overnight in Kyiv and Kharkiv, according to Politico.
Approximately 700,000 people, including at least 17,000 Ukrainian civilians, 150,000 Ukrainian service members, and more than 500,000 of Putin’s own troops, have died since he launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.
The Russian leader is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the unlawful transfer of children from occupied Ukrainian territory into Russia.
Witkoff’s glowing remarks to Putin, who is also under U.S. sanctions over his invasion, come after Trump similarly praised the dictator while bashing America’s nominal ally in the conflict.
“[Volodymyr] Zelensky’s not a good guy for us to deal with,” the 80-year-old president said of his Ukrainian counterpart in an interview with Newsmax last Thursday. “I find Zelensky more difficult to deal with than Putin.”
Witkoff is in Russia to push for negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war—and with U.S.-Ukraine relations arguably at their lowest point since Trump hauled Zelensky in for an Oval Office drubbing in February of last year.
Trump has struck a deal with Putin to lift sanctions against Russian oil companies and buy more than 2 million tonnes of diesel from them.
The agreement is part of a frantic White House bid to lower sky-high fuel costs in the U.S. driven by the president’s deeply unpopular war with Iran, after that conflict helped Democrats gain an almost nine-point lead in the November race for control of the House and Senate.
Zelensky initially stuck to a proposed “energy ceasefire,” which Trump announced on Truth Social without running it past either Moscow or Kyiv first.
The Ukrainian leader then reversed course and attacked the president directly after Russia continued pummelling Ukraine’s energy grid, accusing Trump of kowtowing to authoritarians.
“He speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people,” Zelensky told the Financial Times last week. “Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong.”
Several administration insiders told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Trump had full knowledge and may even have personally ordered a reduction in Starshield service to pressure Ukraine into abiding by the ceasefire.
The military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network is vital to Ukraine’s frontline defense against Russian attacks, especially in its drone operations.
Zelensky claims that the slowdown, along with issues of access to early-warning missile systems, has contributed to a number of civilian deaths over the past week, but has so far declined to provide concrete numbers.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
