Last night I highlighted “Special” Envoy Witkoff’s interview with Tucker Carlson. The transcript has now been published and a read through of that shows his remarks were even worse than the initial clips indicated.

Witkoff transcript is just eye popping: “Why would they want to absorb Ukraine? For what purpose, exactly? They don’t need to absorb Ukraine. That would be like occupying Gaza…They want stability there… But the Russians also have what they want” singjupost.com/transcript-o…

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 2:49 AM

Here’s some excerpts:

STEVE WITKOFF: Well, first of all, I think President Trump sets the table for all of us. He really does this whole peace through strength thing. It’s not just a slogan. It actually works. And so when he dispatches you to go to the Middle East, people are almost a little bit intimidated before you get there. And this goes for me and other people who are doing similar jobs. So he sets the table in a pretty powerful way.

But negotiating is being outcome oriented. I talk about this a lot. It’s figuring out where you want to get to. That’s Trump’s game plan all the time. I sit with the president and we talk often about what the end game is, where does he want to get to? And once you decide where you want to get to, then it’s all about tactically figuring out what that pathway is.

With the Middle East, you know, Tucker, when I first got in and I was talking to Brett McGurk, who was the envoy on behalf of Biden, he was a smart guy.

TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.

STEVE WITKOFF: He just didn’t have a great boss giving him direction. So he couldn’t really speak on behalf of Biden. I was able to speak on behalf of Trump because we talked about it. We had a great conversation about it. He said to me, “This is where I want to get to, Steve.” And so when I went in there, I went in with the imprimatur of the president, and that’s the difference maker.

Let me remind everyone that Witkoff and Trump have now been thoroughly completed played by Bibi over the past three months! And exactly the same way that Trump and his other surrogates spent all of 2024 mocking Biden and his team for being played by Bibi. Go read the entire section dealing with Israel, especially the parts where he talks about Qatar. Then go read this Haaretz reporting on what is being called in Israel Qatargate.

STEVE WITKOFF: I think we’ve made more progress again. Look, Tucker, I’m not just saying it – every solution comes as a result of President Trump. And I don’t get paid to say that. I say it because it is the absolute truth. Putin’s got a huge respect for the President. And, you know, you saw what happened in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy and the President. Disrespecting him is not a healthy way to have a good relationship.

TUCKER CARLSON: The arrogance of small countries. It’s like, get some perspective. I mean, come on, how can you imagine acting like that?

STEVE WITKOFF: And they’re dependent on us. Oh, I know. And we’ve been so good to them.

TUCKER CARLSON: I know.

STEVE WITKOFF: But look, that’s been corrected and that’s a really good thing. It got corrected. And hopefully we’ll chalk it up to a misunderstanding and we’ll get to a peace solution here.

But I believe that we have made more progress in this Russian-Ukraine conflict in the last eight weeks than anyone thought we would ever make. I hear people describe this last conversation that the President had with President Putin as unsuccessful. It’s preposterous. By the way, we talked throughout a two-hour conversation about an ultimate ceasefire. And there are conditions that the Russians will need for an ultimate ceasefire, because an ultimate ceasefire is complicated. There’s Kursk where Ukrainian troops are surrounded. Fact. And the Russians…

STEVE WITKOFF: And the president had a great relationship with Vladimir Putin in his first term. So I think Vladimir Putin knew that it was going to be hard for the president at this time to come over to Russia. I think they’re going to meet in the coming few months. But I think it was enormously gracious for him to accept me. And I need to acknowledge that.

TUCKER CARLSON: That’s why I went over there last year, because I thought we’re moving toward a nuclear war. And I just feel like if no one’s talking to Putin, like, someone should at least broadcast his views to the world because we could have a war otherwise. That was my thinking. Anyway.

STEVE WITKOFF: When I came back after—before the first meeting with President Putin, when President Trump said to me, go over and have that conversation. I think we’re going to have a good, healthy conversation. Before that conversation, there was no talk about a Black Sea moratorium. There was no conversation about an energy infrastructure moratorium on hits between the two. We were not talking about prisoner exchanges and all kinds of other stuff after one meeting.

And I am saying to you, not because of me, because this was President Trump sending a signal to President Putin that he wanted to resume his relationship together and that they were going to be two great leaders figuring out this conflict. That was the message. That was me coming there. That was my message to President Putin. I was directed by President Trump to deliver that message, that we were here to begin a real discussion, a productive discussion about how to end this conflict. And President Putin, to his credit, sent all kinds of signals back to the president that this is the path that he wanted to be on, including statements that he made.

In the second visit that I had, it got personal. President Putin had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist and actually gave it to me and asked me to take it home to President Trump, which I brought home and delivered to him. It’s been reported in the paper, but it was such a gracious moment.

And told me a story, Tucker, about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president, not because he was the President of the United States or could become the President of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend. I mean, can you imagine sitting there and listening to these kind of conversations?

And I came home and delivered that message to our president and delivered the painting, and he was clearly touched by it. So this is the kind of connection that we’ve been able to reestablish through, by the way, a simple word called communication, which many people would say, you know, I shouldn’t have had, because Putin is a bad guy. I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war and all the ingredients that led up to it. You know, it’s never just one person, right? So I think we’re going to figure it out.

TUCKER CARLSON: It’s like a marriage. I mean, you can blame the other person all you want, but you’re implicated in it, too. So that’s just a fact. That’s just human nature. So it does raise the question. Everything you’ve said, I don’t think any fair person—everything you’ve just said about Russia, Ukraine, any fair person would acknowledge. Yeah, that’s true. But there has to be some reason that none of this has been acknowledged for three and a half years. Why the effort to prevent Americans from hearing the other side from understanding the conflict in its totality, not just parts of it, but the whole thing. Why the censorship designed to keep us from knowing what’s actually happening?

STEVE WITKOFF: Because that’s what we’ve been enduring.

TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, I know.

There is much more divorced from reality stupidity at the link. Remember, Witkoff thinks the Qataris are great, the Emir is a wonderful guy, and with the Qataris help, he on behalf of Trump had ended the Gaza war. The reality is that Haaretz has now reported that the Qataris were actually running, as in financing, Bibi’s prime ministerial office, which is why Bibi is trying to fire both the Director of the Shin Bet and the Israeli Attorney General. It is also why Israel has restarted the Gaza war, done so with even fewer restraints, if that’s even possible, amended the law authorizing that war to now include the West Bank, and reinstated convicted terrorist Itamir Ben Gvir as Minister of National Security, who is in charge of the Israeli police. They’ve also restarted the war in south Lebanon.

But wait, there’s more!

Walz, like Witkoff, appears clueless on the basics of his own brief. Embarrassing. “…we will have this cease-fire on aerial infrastructure. That went into place immediately after President Trump’s call with President Putin this week” newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/us-sees…

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM

WTF is “aerial” infrastructure?

From RBC Ukraine:

The White House confirms progress in the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. It is noted that it started after a conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, informs CBS News, citing US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

A journalist pointed out that Ukraine had accepted the US-brokered ceasefire without preconditions, according to the announcement. Meanwhile, Russia claimed it would restrict its operations to targeting energy infrastructure. She asked about the goal of the upcoming negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

Waltz responded that they were closer to peace in Ukraine than ever before. According to him, it all started when President Trump held calls with the leaders of both countries. After that, he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged both Russians and Ukrainians in negotiations at their level.

Biden and his senior natsec team were terrible because they were too risk averse on problem sets where they need to be more risk accepting (Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s genocidal re-invasion) and to risk accepting when they needed to be much more risk averse (dealing with Israel and Bibi). This led them to make a number of strategic mistakes and strategic malpractice despite being very smart, very experienced, and very accomplished. Trump and his team are just off the looking glass and their the map in terms of naivete and incompetence.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

Every Night Now Brings Massive Russian Drone Attacks – Nearly a Hundred Shaheds Each Time – Address by the President

23 March 2025 – 20:33

Dear Ukrainians!

First and foremost, gratitude to our air defenders. Every night now brings massive Russian drone attacks – nearly a hundred Shaheds each time. Many are being shot down. As of this morning alone, 97 drones were shot down overnight. Mobile fire groups, electronic warfare units, air defense crews – thank you. Unfortunately, there are also hits. We need significantly more effectiveness in our air defense. The development of an efficient air shield will not stop. Today, I would like to thank all our partners who are helping us in this. But we need more air defense systems, more ammunition specifically for shooting down drones. We are discussing this with all our partners. Last night in Kyiv, tragically, three people were killed by Russian drones, including a father and his five-year-old daughter. Just a day earlier in Zaporizhzhia, a Russian strike took the lives of an entire family – a mother, a father, and their daughter. My condolences to all the families and loved ones. There must be more pressure on Russia to stop this terror. And that depends on all our partners – the U.S., Europe, and others around the world. After the last meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it has become absolutely clear to the entire world: Russia is the only one dragging this war out, the only one that brought it here – and the only one who needs it to continue. Since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table – and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this. Every night, every single day, it carries out the most cynical strikes. Without pressure on Russia, those in Moscow will continue to show contempt for real diplomacy and keep destroying lives. Today is the second meeting between the Ukrainian and U.S. teams in Saudi Arabia. This time at a more technical level – with our military, diplomats, and representatives from the Ministry of Energy. I just spoke with Rustem Umerov, who briefed me on the meeting and the course of negotiations. Our team is working in a fully constructive manner, and the discussion is quite useful. The work of delegations continues. But no matter what we’re discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes – because the one who brought this war must be the one to take it back.

Today, I also want to recognize our warriors – all of our men and women in the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine, in the defense industry of our state, all of our volunteers, and everyone who is working to uphold Ukraine’s resilience. All our people, thanks to whom Ukraine’s positions are strong – thank you! And especially – the warriors of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade – well done! The 59th Separate Assault Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces – yesterday, I had the opportunity to personally thank this brigade in the Donetsk region, and today, once again, for their results in combat – thank you! The 152nd Separate Mechanized Brigade – thank you very much, warriors! The warriors of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade – thank you for your successful actions in the liberation of the village of Nadiya in the Luhansk region. Every day, our people prove that Ukraine deserves respect, deserves to be treated as an equal, and deserves a dignified peace. I am proud of our people! Thank you to everyone around the world, everyone who stands with Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!

Georgia:

Day 116. New, free and fair Parliamentary elections, and the release of the regime prisoners. #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Giorgi Burjanadze

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 2:50 PM

There are 3 choices for Russia’s European neighbours:

1. NATO integration;
2. Russian invasion;
3. Having a Russian puppet regime with all the social darkness it carries – and which doesn’t even guarantee a lack of Russian military adventurism.

No wonder we all rush to NATO.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 3:51 PM

Moscow on the Potomac:

Any half-competent negotiator in Russia should be asking for this, given the rubes sitting across the table. Why not?

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 11:56 AM

From The Moscow Times:

As high-level delegations from the U.S. and Russia arrive in Saudi Arabia for the second round of bilateral talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Moscow’s envoys will have one goal on their mind: buying time.

For the Kremlin, dragging out peace negotiations for as long as possible is imperative for seizing as much Ukrainian territory as it can and getting an upper hand over Kyiv in relations with the U.S., as Moscow isn’t capable of making these battlefield advances quickly, four sources familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking told The Moscow Times.

All of these sources spoke on condition of anonymity in order to share details about sensitive diplomatic matters.

“Time is currently on our side, and we’ll try to make the most of it,” a Russian diplomat told The Moscow Times.

While President Vladimir Putin said that he agreed in principle to Trump’s proposed 30-day ceasefire, he stressed that “nuances” are important for Moscow — a signal that Russia will insist on its maximalist demands before it agrees to lay down arms.

It is those nuances that Putin’s envoys have been tasked with starting to address in detail at the talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Ideally, the Kremlin hopes that Washington will either tacitly allow Russia to keep advancing on the battlefield while diplomats negotiate — or even pressure Kyiv to fully withdraw its troops from Russian-occupied regions, including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, said a current Russian official.

Moscow claims that the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are Russian territory despite not fully controlling any of them.

Moscow is bent on solidifying control over these regions at any cost, as Putin cannot politically afford to abandon them after enshrining their status in the Constitution, a Kremlin-linked official said.

“There is no constitutional mechanism for regions to secede. We need all of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Either Trump influences them to leave, or we’re told: ‘Enter into long negotiations and simply use military force to establish control.’ That’s the worst option for us, because river crossings are always painful operations,” the official said.

Alternately, Russia could try to seize parts of another Ukrainian region such as Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy and then offer a trade for Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the official continued.

“We hope to find an option that doesn’t involve forcing the Dnipro and storming Kherson [the city is on the right bank; Russian forces control the left]. I really hope it doesn’t come to that. That would mean for us thousands of casualties,” he said.

In terms of military logistics, Russian forces in their current state cannot realistically aim for anything beyond the Sloviansk-Dnipropetrovsk area, he added.

“Physically, this force can’t go anywhere further or do anything more,” he said. “Reaching Odesa is, of course, impossible. And we don’t even need that.”

Moscow is sending seasoned negotiators for its second meeting with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Among them is Senator Grigory Karasin, a former deputy foreign minister who spent 47 years in the Foreign Ministry and for many years handled the “Ukrainian dossier,” including participation in drafting both Minsk agreements, which the Kremlin considered a major success.

Sergei Beseda, another Ukraine expert who serves as an advisor to FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, will also be present at the talks.

For years, Beseda headed the FSB’s Fifth Service, which was responsible for intelligence gathering, source recruitment and subversive activities in Ukraine.

He played a key role in planning the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After the invasion failed in its initial goals of capturing Kyiv and decapitating the Ukrainian leadership, Beseda was reportedly placed under house arrest, according to journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan.

When determining which lands will go to which side, Moscow believes that the exact location of the dividing line is not of critical importance to Washington, two Russian officials told The Moscow Times.

“As I understand it, Trump wants a modern, well-armed, pro-Western Ukraine. He can’t just give Ukraine up entirely. But where exactly the border is drawn is not that crucial to him,” a Moscow Times source said.

As The Moscow Times has previously reported, Russia will try to paint Ukraine as the obstacle to peace in hopes of nabbing concessions from Washington.

Although the Kremlin has not agreed to Trump’s proposal of a full ceasefire and a partial ceasefire halting strikes on energy infrastructure has not yet been signed, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has already started to accuse Kyiv of violations.

Both Ukrainian and Russian forces have launched heavy strikes in recent days.

“We believe the ceasefire proposed by the U.S. president has already been violated by the Kyiv regime. How the American side will now deal with this deranged terrorist scum, excuse my language — that’s a big question,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the state-run Channel One broadcaster on Thursday night.

Moscow wants these negotiations to be worked out in as much detail as the second Minsk Agreements. Doing so could take a significant amount of time — as much as several weeks.

“Things are unfolding more according to Russia’s scenario. Whether this moratorium [on strikes on energy infrastructure and ships in the Black Sea] will happen is still unclear,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-friendly journal Russia in Global Affairs. “But even if it’s implemented, it won’t directly change the situation on the battlefield, where the initiative currently belongs to Russia.”

Yet Israeli military expert David Sharp cast doubt on the idea that Russia could realistically capture as much land as it wants without external help before a peace deal is reached.

“The Russian army is incapable of quickly and fully occupying the territories of the four annexed Ukrainian regions. For Russians, capturing even a couple of villages is seen as a huge success,” Sharp told The Moscow Times.

“In order to cross the Dnipro and seize Kherson — or even take the city of Zaporizhzhia without having to cross the river, as Zaporizhzhia lies on both banks — something extraordinary would have to happen. This is an extremely difficult task. Either the Russian army would have to be dramatically strengthened, which cannot happen suddenly or out of nowhere, or there would need to be a complete collapse of Ukraine’s defense. Russia is betting on wearing down the enemy over time,” Sharp said.

More at the link.

The White House set a deadline for a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire deal by April 20, per Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Russia’s MFA said it will likely abandon the temporary halt on energy strikes, as if they ever honored it. www.bloomberg.com/news/article…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:48 AM

I expect that whomever is on the US team in Jeddah this week is going to completely ignore what the Russians have been so clearly communicating.

Back to Ukraine.

Umerov: The meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations has concluded. According to him, the discussion was productive—the delegates discussed key issues, including energy.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:49 PM

Kyiv:

Midnight here in Kyiv and like clockwork Russia has launched its nightly air strikes on Ukraine. Sirens wailing as I type this and mobile phones ringing with text alerts warning of “increased air threat” and urging to seek shelter.

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— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) March 23, 2025 at 6:04 PM

3 dead, incl. 5-year-old, 8 injured in overnight Russian terror bombing of Kyiv with Shahed attack drones. Frustrated by failure to achieve regime change and military victory in Ukraine, fascist Russia is resorting to terror tactics again. The previous night Odesa bore the brunt.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:24 AM

Three killed in Russian attack on Kyiv tonight. Including a father and his 5‑year‑old daughter. As a Ukrainian witnessing brutal escalation of Russian attack on civilians, I must ask: what fuels their growing boldness?

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— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:33 AM

This is Nikol, a young girl killed today alongside her father, Oleksandr, in an attack by russia. Her mother is currently hospitalized.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 8:40 AM

While rescuers in Kyiv clear debris after a massive Russian attack, others take on the Kyiv Unbroken Ten championship after a sleepless night. That’s the spirit of Ukraine.

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— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 10:41 AM

Kherson:

This is russia casually dropping a drone on civilians repairing the roof in Kherson.

Russian “human safari” in Kherson continues every single day.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 8:47 AM

Kharkiv:

Yesterday, this was a school in the Kharkiv region. Over night, russian drones turned it into rubble.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM

Zaporizhzhia:

Russia has launched another drone attack on Zaporizhzhia,they keep terrorising the city after killing an entire family there in a semilar attack just days ago.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 9:22 PM

Dnipryani, Russian occupied Kherson Oblast:

On March 21, 2025, Ukraine’s Air Force struck and destroyed a composite company of Russia’s 205th Brigade in Dnipryany, occupied Kherson region, per General Staff. The strike took out enemy vessels, equipment, and a storage filled with tech, crippling their ability to fight in the area.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 9:30 AM

Belgorod Oblast:

Somber Governor of Russia’s Belgorod region Gladkov announced that nearly all residents of the border Krasnoyaruzhsky district have been evacuated due to a limited special operation by Ukraine’s defense forces, which began on March 18. This accounts for approximately 14,000 good Russians.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 5:21 AM

Russian military channels report that Ukrainian Armed Forces have taken control of Demidivka in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 1:42 PM

Russian Z-channels keep confirming the capture of Demidivka in Belgorod Oblast by Ukrainian forces, and now whining that their troops just up and left, letting Ukrainian fighters advance.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 2:31 PM

Krasnodar Krai, Russia:

Russian oil storage facilities at the oil transshipment point “Kavkazskaya” exploded again tonight. The facility is still on fire since it was attacked on the night of March 18-19.

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 2:20 AM

Last night, another epic explosion rocked the “Kavkazskaya” oil transshipment point in Krasnodar Krai. The fire show at this hub blazes on for the 5th day. Is this the kind of “ruckus” Putin was talking about, or not yet?

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:26 AM

Just three more days…

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron skeets or videos today. Here is some adjacent material.

This is “Cat Town” in the southern Ukrainian city of Ochakiv! Many families fled from this area, but could not take their pets with them. So the remaining residents built little apartments for 40 cats who were living on the streets. Denis & Angela from the Hachiko team bring food every week!

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— Nate Mook (@natemook.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 8:34 PM

Open thread!