Kyiv and Moscow are growing increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-mediated peace process and the role of U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Behind the scenes, several separate initiatives are already underway to sideline him from the negotiations and weaken his close contacts with Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev.
This was reported by Kyiv Independent.
At the same time, Donald Trump, according to people close to the process, has shown no readiness to remove Witkoff, whom he still considers capable of handling the negotiating track.
Why Kyiv is unhappy
Ukrainian officials have long questioned Witkoff’s understanding of the war and his approach to diplomacy. One Kyiv Independent source who attended trilateral negotiations said Witkoff would sometimes leave the talks without explaining to the other participants where he was going.
His relationship with Vladimir Putin has caused additional concern in Kyiv. Witkoff has met him at least seven times and has repeatedly spoken warmly about those contacts. During a meeting on Sept. 5, he told Putin that after retiring, he would remember their meetings in the Kremlin as some of the best and most unforgettable moments of his life.
According to the outlet, Ukrainian officials see this approach as overly accommodating and doubt that it can persuade Putin to make meaningful concessions.
Witkoff’s understanding of the territorial issue has become another source of frustration. In April 2025, he spoke about a potential peace agreement involving “five territories.” According to Kyiv Independent, during a meeting with Putin, the Russian president wrote “3+2” on a sheet of paper, referring to territorial concessions being discussed. Witkoff took the sheet back with him to Washington.
Why frustration is also growing in Moscow
According to people briefed on Ukrainian intelligence, officials in Moscow increasingly see Witkoff as partly responsible for the failure of last year’s summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
A week before the summit, Witkoff returned from a meeting with Putin without a stenographer and relied on a Kremlin translator rather than an interpreter from the U.S. Embassy. After the meeting, he told Trump that Putin was supposedly ready to discuss an arrangement under which Ukraine would withdraw from parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, while Russia would pull back from parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. According to the source, Putin had not offered such concessions, and Witkoff had misunderstood his “3+2” position.
One participant in the negotiations also claims that Witkoff failed to convey to Trump Putin’s desire to formally document the understandings reached in Alaska. As a result, the summit ended without a written framework for further negotiations.
The Dmitriev problem
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is also increasingly viewed by the outlet’s sources as someone who has made many promises but failed to deliver concrete results.
According to a Ukrainian intelligence source, every failure weakens Dmitriev’s position in the Kremlin and strengthens the Russian Foreign Ministry led by Sergey Lavrov. Dmitriev’s faction in the Kremlin is seen as favoring an agreement with Ukraine on terms advantageous to Moscow, while a harder-line group, which the outlet says includes Lavrov and FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, believes a military victory over Ukraine is both possible and desirable.
One Kyiv Independent source described the connection between the two negotiators this way: “When Dmitriev is gone, Witkoff is gone.”
Who could replace Witkoff
The question of a possible replacement for Witkoff remains open. The Kremlin has publicly said it is ready to maintain several channels of communication with Washington.
In late August, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow, where he discussed Ukraine, among other issues, with senior Russian security officials. The Financial Times reported that Trump was considering giving Ratcliffe a broader diplomatic role in the negotiations, but the White House dismissed the report as “totally fake news.”
According to a Kyiv Independent source, Moscow also considers Ratcliffe too supportive of Ukraine to be an acceptable replacement for Witkoff.
For now, the negotiating channel remains unchanged. Kyiv wants Washington to exert more pressure on Moscow, the Kremlin is increasingly questioning whether Witkoff accurately conveys its position to Trump, while the U.S. president, according to people close to him, is in no hurry to remove his longtime friend from the negotiating process.
