Steve Witkoff, acting as personal envoy for President Trump, first met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Russo-Ukrainian War on February 23. His most recent meeting, accompanied by Jared Kushner, occurred at the Kremlin on December 2, which lasted five monotonous hours in an effort to negotiate a final peace agreement to end the war.
Witcoff, a “billionaire New York real estate developer, who has known Mr. Trump since the mid-1980s,” … [lacks] expertise in the region, and has “no diplomatic experience.” This has been woefully reflected in his six fruitless meetings with Putin so far in 2025.
According to Politico on August 29, Witcoff “has refused to consult with experts and allies, leaving him uninformed at times and unprepared at others, according to seven people familiar with internal discussions. Two said he misses the mark by viewing the conflict through a real estate lens, like a land dispute.” This is not good.
Witkoff “spent almost five hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday [December 2] in negotiations, which the Kremlin said produced “‘no compromise'” on ending the war in Ukraine.” It is painfully obvious that Witcoff is in over his head. Otherwise, there would have been a peace agreement by now between Ukraine and Russia. In retrospect, it strongly appears that President Trump was correct when he stated on April 2 that Putin was “tapping me along” or wasting his time using stall tactics so that he could conquer more Ukrainian territory.
That was over eight months ago, and it is still true today. Witcoff needs to go back to managing his residential, hotel, office, and golf club properties. Diplomacy is not his strength.
However, who will replace him?
The U.S. needs to rapidly reappraise its negotiations with Putin and immediately replace both Witkoff and Kushner with such seasoned diplomatic heavyweights, who possess the credentials of a deceased Henry Kissinger, Charles E. Bohlen, or George C. Marshall.
I think that the mercurial, bloody blue-eyed tyrant Vladimir Putin has no intention of giving up any seized Ukrainian territory, especially the Donbas in southeastern Ukraine. He just talks endless pablum and procrastination. His mindset is the same as Adolf Hitler’s, who never intended to cede the Sudetenland in the former Czechoslovakia after September 30, 1938, or relinquish the western half of Poland after September 1, 1939.
The same is true about Putin’s hero, the genocidal Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler’s ally until June 22, 1941, who never planned to give up the eastern half of Poland after September 17, 1939. In many ways, Putin is like a ravenous wolf who will never be satisfied with his conquered Ukrainian territories. He even disdainfully called European leaders “little pigs” while “declaring in a speech Wednesday [December 17] that Moscow will settle for nothing less than Ukraine to surrender “‘unconditionally.’”
Putin, who sees himself as a modern (5’7”) Peter the Great (6’8”) minus one foot and an inch in stature, or perhaps Ivan the Terrible, desperately wants to conquer all of Ukraine and annex it to be under Moscow’s firm control. Putin’s desired annexation of Ukraine since 2022 is no different than Hitler’s attempted annexation of Ukraine in 1941
The only solution to stop the Russian occupation of Ukraine is for the U.S. to annex it and make it a territory like Puerto Rico or Guam because most NATO militaries are supine and feckless compared to the U.S. This would give Ukraine the ultimate “platinum security guarantee,” which has not been suggested by Trump as a deterrent against future Russian aggression.
I take no credit for the idea of annexing Ukraine and making it a U.S. territory. I initially heard about this proposal from John Ellis while listening to the Hugh Hewitt Show on December 5, which was rebroadcast in Hewitt’s “The Big Weekend Pod,” originally broadcast on December 6 on an Apple podcast.
Ellis, founder and publisher of News Items, proposed that since the Kremlin has no realistic intention of seeking a permanent peace with Ukraine and guaranteeing its sovereignty, the U.S. annexes Ukraine as a U.S. territory with the possibility of becoming the 51st state in the future. Ellis believes that his proposal would seriously get Putin’s recalcitrant and mendacious attention, and have him sign a lasting peace treaty, and face the U.S. as a friendly non-hostile neighbor on Russia’s southwestern border.
Plus, the U.S. can provide better military guarantees than NATO, drastically reducing the prospect of a third future Russo-Ukrainian war.
After all, the U.S. island of Little Diomede is only 2.4 miles from the Russian island of Big Diomede in the Bering Strait. So the proximity of these two islands has never been a source of conflict between Russia and the U.S. Therefore, a U.S. territory in Ukraine would pose no offensive threat to Russia despite a 1,240-mile border between the two countries.
I think that the Ellis proposal might truly give President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize and stop future Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
Robert L. Maronic
