Witkoff out of depth on history

Donald Trump should not be surprised that Vladimir Putin, as he put it on Wednesday, is “dragging his feet” over a Ukraine ceasefire. The surprise would be if, given the warmth of the US administration’s over-the-top embrace of the Russian tyrant, Putin were doing anything other than playing hardball and holding out for more concessions.

The extent of that embrace was seen in recent days, with Mr Trump’s special negotiator on Ukraine, his billionaire golf buddy Steve Witkoff, in a lengthy interview after meeting Putin, parroting one specious Russian talking point after another in talking about Moscow’s invasion.

Mr Witkoff, despite his crucial role as Mr Trump’s principal envoy on both Ukraine and the war in Gaza, appears to know little about Russian history. Georgia, Moldova and the Baltic States, all of which are under threat from Putin’s long-stated intention to reconstitute a greater Russian empire, would doubtless be interested in Mr Witkoff’s benign perceptions of the Russian despot’s intentions in Ukraine and beyond.

Only the Kremlin and Putin’s hegemonic ambitions are served by such wilful neglect of historical reality. Democratic Ukraine’s valiant fight for survival against Russia’s entirely unprovoked, unjustified onslaught, in defiance of every tenet of international law, deserves far better than the ignorance of historical reality and shameless mollycoddling of Moscow it is getting from the Trump administration. No wonder Putin is “dragging his feet” over a ceasefire.