EU officials hesitate to discuss Ukraine with Steve Witkoff, preferring to communicate directly with Donald Trump due to a lack of trust in him.

European Union officials have concluded that they do not wish to discuss the issue of the war in Ukraine with Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump. They believe that Witkoff does not understand the complexity of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and cannot reliably convey messages between Moscow and Washington. A European official emphasized that EU leaders prefer to communicate directly with Trump to avoid confusion. A significant incident was Witkoff's breach of diplomatic protocol, as he had a meeting with Vladimir Putin without an assistant, which led to ambiguities regarding the peace conditions proposed by the Kremlin. Although Witkoff initially reported that Putin would accept the withdrawal of troops from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, he later stated the opposite, causing confusion.