U.S. President's special envoy Steve Whitkoff went to negotiations with Vladimir Putin on August 6 without a stenographer from the U.S. State Department, one of the Reuters interlocutors said. This led to him misunderstanding the Kremlin's position.
Soon after the meeting, Whitkoff informed Donald Trump that Putin was ready to make significant territorial concessions to end the war in Ukraine. Trump welcomed the "great progress" of his emissary and agreed to hold a historic summit with Putin, indicating that it was about exchanging territories.
However, the very next day, speaking with European national security advisors, Whitkoff stated that Putin did not promise troop withdrawal. According to him, it was about less significant concessions, such as Moscow's refusal to demand Western recognition of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as part of Russia. And a day later, Whitkoff reported yet another position from Moscow. He said that Putin actually did not propose withdrawing troops from the two regions. Diplomatic efforts "turned into chaos," Reuters notes.
Several American officials, including Ukraine special envoy Keith Kellogg, expressed disappointment that at a time when the U.S. "finally took a tougher stance on Russia," conflicting information was received at the White House.
Despite the summit, which Washington approached with misinterpreted signals from Moscow, the Ukrainian war did not come closer to an end, says Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, who served as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine during Trump's first term.
"We are where we were before Trump took office," added Volker. "Russia has not changed its position one iota. The war continues... We do not have a clear strategy to make Putin stop the war." However, he noted that sooner or later the Kremlin will leave Trump with no choice.