U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday that the status and borders of the five disputed regions in Ukraine — Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, and parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — is “the crux of the deal” Trump is trying to negotiation between Zeleknsky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The Russians have previously said that they wanted it at the administrative lines… the actual legal boundary lines, as compared to the contact lines. The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,” he said about the Friday meeting between Trump and Putin. “They made some other concessions on several of the regions. I’m not going to discuss it now.” “I think everybody agreed that we had made progress, maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we’re on the path for the first time,” he said.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN: How would it be quicker than a cease — I understand the idea of, like, a larger peace deal is an important point. But it was President Trump that had said that he wanted a cease-fire agreed to at the meeting on Friday. And he didn’t get it. And there are now five Ukrainians who are dead because the Russians continue to bombard Ukraine. I still don’t understand how not getting the cease-fire deal is a win. I understand the idea of wanting this bigger package, of course. But a cease-fire would at least stop the bloodshed right now. AMBASSADOR STEVE WITKOFF: Jake, the thesis of a cease-fire is that you would be discussing all of these issues that we resolved in Alaska. You would be discussing security guarantees. There’s not a person on the European team who didn’t acknowledge that we made substantial progress at this meeting. We certainly did. So we cut through all kinds of issues that would be — that would have to be discussed and agreed to during a cease-fire period. What we are — the land — the fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians, that had — that could not have been discussed at this meeting. We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully, we have some clarity on it, and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon. TAPPER: So Trump told FOX that he and Putin — quote — “largely have agreed on” — unquote — land swaps. And sources tell CNN that Trump, President Trump, told European leaders that Putin will agree to end the war and not attack Ukraine or other European countries, as you mentioned earlier, in exchange for Ukraine ceding the entire Donbass region to Russia, including territory that isn’t even currently occupied by Russian forces. Is that accurate? Is that what’s on the table, but Ukraine has to agree to cede all of Donbass? WITKOFF: I think — I think, look, I don’t know that we have — we have the time now to go through all the different issues on these five regions. There are five regions here. It’s always, in our view, been the crux of the deal. Those five regions, the Russians have previously said that they wanted it at the administrative lines… the actual legal boundary lines, as compared to the contact lines. The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions. There is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there. And that discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday, when President Zelensky arrives with his delegation and some of the other European leaders. And, hopefully, we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there on that. TAPPER: What more Russian concessions can you tell us about? Because obviously ceding land up to the administrative line is not a small thing for Ukraine to agree to. You said that Russia would agree to legislatively saying they wouldn’t seize any more land in Ukraine past the administrative line, that Russia agreed to legislatively assert that they will not attack any other European countries. What other concessions from Russia might there be? WITKOFF: They made some other concessions on several of the regions. I’m not going to discuss it now. The Ukrainians are aware of it, as are the Europeans, and it was significant. And that doesn’t mean it’s enough. But it was — the point was that we began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal. And so we feel that that’s encouraging. Now, we briefed the Europeans immediately after we were done with the summit. We — first, we briefed President Zelensky directly. He deserved that. And the president got right on the phone with him. And then we had the Europeans on the phone. And I think everybody agreed that we had made progress, maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we’re on the path for the first time. We are seeing accommodation more than we have seen in the past, certainly more than we saw in the last administration. And that is — that’s encouraging. Now we have to build on that. And we have to get a deal for the Ukrainians that allows for their self-determination, allows protection of their sovereign borders. We have to make sure that we achieve that. And the president is intent on getting to that place. TAPPER: In terms of Ukrainian security guarantees, you mentioned the Article 5 guarantee of NATO, an attack on one is an attack on all. Russia would allow that to happen, that any more — any further incursions into Ukraine, Russia would understand would be seen as an attack on all NATO members? WITKOFF: No, Jake, that’s not what I said. What I said is that we got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee. So, Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission. And so what we were discussing was, assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that and could live with that — and everything is going to be — is going to about what the Ukrainians can live with. But, assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO. We sort of were able to bypass that and get an agreement that the United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that. TAPPER: Zelensky says he supports President Trump’s plan for a trilateral meeting, Putin-Zelensky-Trump. Has Putin agreed to do such a thing? WITKOFF: Well, my belief is that we are going to — this is my view. My belief, my view is that we are going to get to a trilateral. And what we’re trying to accomplish on Monday is get some consensus from President Zelensky and his team. We had some really good, specific, granular conversation on the plane ride home with President Zelensky about what he would be seeking. And we don’t think that there are any obstacles in that conversation that we heard. And so I’m hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we’re able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done and stop the killing.

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