{"id":3319,"date":"2025-02-24T14:09:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/?p=3319"},"modified":"2025-02-24T15:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:28:14","slug":"ukraine-conflict-was-provoked-trump-adviser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/24\/ukraine-conflict-was-provoked-trump-adviser\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine conflict was \u2018provoked\u2019 \u2013 Trump adviser"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US promise of NATO membership for Kiev triggered the hostilities, Steve Witkoff has said<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ukraine conflict was \u201cprovoked\u201d<\/em> and it is wrong to solely blame Russia, Steve Witkoff, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has said. Moscow had to respond to a security threat created by the West\u2019s promises to accept Ukraine into NATO, he stated.<\/p>\n

Witkoff made the remarks in an interview published by CNN on Tuesday, in which he was asked whether Washington was choosing the right side by holding talks with Moscow instead of continuing to funnel aid to Kiev.<\/p>\n

The situation is not black-and-white, with Russians being \u201cthe bad guys,\u201d<\/em> Witkoff told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper.
<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe war didn\u2019t need to happen, it was provoked,\u201d<\/em> he added. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Witkoff, \u201cthere were all kinds of conversations\u2026 about Ukraine joining NATO\u201d<\/em> prior to the conflict that were treated by Moscow as a direct threat to its security and prompted it to respond.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
US opposes term \u2018Russian aggression\u2019 in G7 statements \u2013 media<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The US official also spoke about Russia\u2019s readiness to swiftly end the conflict through negotiations, pointing to the talks held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, shortly after Moscow began its military campaign.<\/p>\n

The peace process came to an abrupt end in May of that year when Kiev withdrew from the talks after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged it to continue fighting.
Russian officials \u201chave indicated that they are responsive\u201d<\/em> to ending the conflict by engaging in \u201ccogent and substantive negotiations\u201d<\/em> in Istanbul, Witkoff said, adding that the two sides \u201ccame very, very close to signing something.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Biden\u2019s NATO promise to Ukraine provoked conflict \u2013 Trump<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The T\u00fcrkiye-facilitated Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in 2022 resulted in a preliminary agreement for a treaty that would have seen Ukraine become a neutral nation with a limited military, backed by security guarantees from major world powers, including Russia.<\/p>\n

According to Witkoff, the preliminary Istanbul agreement could be used by Washington as a framework and a \u201cguidepost\u201d<\/em> for a future peace deal.<\/p>\n

Last week, Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky described the Istanbul talks as \u201can important reference point and the platform where the parties came closest to an agreement.\u201d<\/em> He also named T\u00fcrkiye an \u201cideal host\u201d<\/em> for potential negotiations between Kiev, Moscow, and Washington.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly referred to the Istanbul agreements as a potential basis for any future peace deal with Kiev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US promise of NATO membership for Kiev triggered the hostilities, Steve Witkoff has said The Ukraine conflict was \u201cprovoked\u201d and it is wrong to solely blame Russia, Steve Witkoff, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has said. Moscow had to respond to a security threat created by the West\u2019s promises to accept…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3323,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions\/3323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}