Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy, praised Russian ruler Vladimir Putin during face-to-face talks in St. Petersburg, calling him “a humanitarian.”
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again,” Witkoff said Wednesday in a Russian state media video clip posted on social media.
Witkoff’s visit is the latest U.S. attempt to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiation table, four-and-a-half years after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.