'What good was a handful of missiles going to accomplish?': Report claims Witkoff offered Ukraine tariff relief instead of Tomahawks
"I'm in the deal settlement business. That's why I'm here. We keep on knocking at the door and coming up with ideas," Witkoff is quoted by the WSJ as saying
Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, put it to the Ukrainian leadership that their country's long-term interests would be better served by a tariff relief rather than long-range Tomahawk missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
This comes days after a Bloomberg News report that Witkoff told Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy aide that the two should work together on a ceasefire plan for Ukraine and that Putin should raise it with Trump.
The WSJ report sheds new light on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's October trip to Washington, undertaken in the hope of securing U.S. Tomahawks. The Ukrainian military planned to use the cruise missiles to disable Russian oil refineries.
A day before Zelensky's arrival, however, Trump held a telephone call with Putin, subsequently deciding withhold the Tomahawks.
Instead, Witkoff suggested a different approach to Ukrainian officials, saying "What good was a handful of missiles going to accomplish?"
He advised the Ukrainian delegation to ask Trump to exempt the war-ravaged country from U.S. tariffs for a decade "it would supercharge their economy."
"I'm in the deal settlement business. That's why I'm here. We keep on knocking at the door and coming up with ideas," Witkoff was quoted by the WSJ as saying.