Volodymyr Zelensky returns Steve Witkoff’s comments to him after a night of intense Russian strikes.
Russia launched three waves of intense missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital just hours after Donald Trump’s top diplomat hailed Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian.”
The attacks on kyiv involved 21 rockets that killed at least one person and injured 22 others. Further strikes on at least 11 other areas killed one more person and brought the total number of wounded to 34, including five children.
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, that he is a humanitarian,” Steve Witkoff, 69, told the Russian tyrant during a face-to-face meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
“You are also a humanitarian, sir, and I salute that,” added the American envoy for peace missions. “I congratulate you and thank you again.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointedly cited Witkoff’s remarks in an article detailing the impact of Moscow’s nighttime attacks Thursday morning.
“Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at kyiv by Russian “humanitarians” since last night,” Zelensky wrote. He then listed damaged structures, including residential buildings, energy facilities, railway and subway stations, shopping centers, businesses and a monastery.
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“I am grateful to everyone who sees the situation as it is and recognizes the reality,” he continued. “The aggressor deserves to be treated accordingly. Ukraine deserves support. People’s lives deserve to be protected. Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine!”
The Trump administration has had nothing but kind words for the Russian tyrant in recent weeks.
Pavel Byrkin/Sputnik/Pavel Byrkin/Pool via REUTERS
Witkoff’s remarks follow Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Tuesday evening that killed three people in kyiv and the northeastern Kharkiv region.
About 700,000 people, including 17,000 Ukrainian civilians, 150,000 Ukrainian military personnel and more than half a million Russian troops, have died since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump has also attacked Zelensky several times.
The United States is among dozens of countries that have sanctioned the Russian president over the conflict, while the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for him for alleged war crimes linked to the forced movement of children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia.
Witkoff’s comments Wednesday, accompanying him to Russia to promote negotiations to end the war, followed Trump himself attacking Zelensky and praising Putin last week.
Zelensky hit back at both Witkoff and Trump.
Valentin Ogirenko/REUTERS
“Zelensky is not a good guy for us to deal with,” the 80-year-old president told Newsmax last Thursday. “I find Zelensky more difficult to manage than Putin.”
Relations between the United States and Ukraine have been at an all-time low since Trump struck a deal with Putin earlier this month to buy more than 2 million tons of Russian diesel in an effort to lower fuel prices driven by Trump’s pet war with Iran.
That conflict, and its impact on U.S. domestic prices, has allowed Democrats to take a roughly 10-point lead heading into November’s midterm elections, which could give them control of the House and Senate.
The White House slowed coverage of satellite internet systems critical to Ukraine’s front-line defense and threatened to cut off military intelligence to its nominal ally in the conflict to pressure Zelensky into agreeing to an “energy ceasefire” with Russia.
Zelensky defied this moratorium, which Trump unilaterally declared on Truth Social without consulting either Moscow or kyiv, after Russia repeatedly violated the so-called agreement.
The Ukrainian president also took direct aim at his American counterpart in a scathing interview with the Financial Times last week, when he accused Trump of pandering to the Russian dictator’s demands.
“He says openly and loudly that he loves these people and respects them,” Zelensky said. “Because for him, people who can be leaders for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, that means they can be very strong.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
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