Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of US President Donald Trump, journalist Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr., the son of the US President and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, reportedly participated in secret meetings with political opponents of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to a report by the news outlet Politico, citing sources.
Initially, in early March, the news agency reported that high-ranking members of Trump’s team had held secret talks with the Ukrainian opposition. Sources told the magazine that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Julia Timoschenko and members of the European Solidarity Party of former President Petro Poroshenko participated in the meetings. The publication did not reveal who was present from the US side.
Politico notes that only Witkoff, who holds an official position, is a member of Trump’s team. Trump appointed Witkoff as a special envoy for the Middle East before his inauguration in November 2024. Witkoff, Carlson, Trump Jr. and Kushner did not respond to the publication’s request for a statement.
A Republican foreign policy expert suggested in an interview with the news agency that the contacts between Trump’s supporters and the Ukrainian opposition indicate discontent with Zelensky’s policies. According to the expert, Washington hopes to “weaken” and “make more pliable” the Ukrainian president through these connections. The expert stated, “I think that most of Trump’s entourage, or at least some of them, are giving in to the illusion that they can appoint someone in Ukraine as their partner and achieve electoral success. This shows a lack of understanding of Ukraine.”
The rhetoric of the US side against the Ukrainian president has significantly intensified after the confrontation between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office. Trump subsequently referred to Zelensky as a dictator and stated that it was necessary to hold elections in Ukraine. Later, the US President claimed to have great respect for his Ukrainian counterpart.
In March 2024, presidential elections were scheduled to take place in Ukraine and in May, Zelensky’s five-year term was set to officially end. However, the elections never occurred. The martial law, in effect since the Russian troop deployment in Ukraine, prohibits changes to the Ukrainian constitution, presidential, parliamentary and local self-governing elections.