Ukraine ceasefire faces battlefield challenges, envoy says
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, emphasized the challenges of implementing a ceasefire in Ukraine, citing the vast scale of the war.
Witkoff paid a visit to Moscow on March 13 for talks on the 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine had accepted after a U.S.-Ukrainian meeting in Saudi Arabia on March 11.
"A ceasefire involves how to get people to not be fighting with each other over a 2,000-kilometer border," he said on CBS News "Face the Nation" on March 16, noting the complexity of managing hostilities across such a large area.
Witkoff pointed to key battlegrounds, including Kursk, and stressed the need to address strategic concerns like control over Ukraine’s nuclear power infrastructure and access to Black Sea ports.
"There is a nuclear reactor that supplies quite a bit of electricity to the country of Ukraine. That’s got to be dealt with," he said referring to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, adding that Russian objectives in specific regions must also be considered in negotiations.
Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the Zaporizhzhia plant in Enerhodar, has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Although still controlled by Russian forces, the plant is not currently producing electricity.
Ukraine and its allies have consistently called for Russia to withdraw its troops from the site. Since the occupation began, the plant has been repeatedly disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Comparing the situation to the conflict in Gaza, Witkoff noted the differences in scope. "Gaza is a finite, defined space, as compared to where the battle is being fought in Ukraine, Russia. So this is a much more complicated situation," he said.
Despite these challenges, he insisted that no one is "throwing their hands up in the air" and that all stakeholders, including European partners, remain committed to seeking a resolution.
Yana Prots
