When Vladimir Putin heard Donald Trump had been shot in the ear at a rally in Pennsylvania last year, the Russian president said he went to his local church, met with his priest and prayed, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Putin, according to Witkoff’s conversation with the man, prayed not because Trump was a U.S. presidential candidate at the time, but because he “had a friendship with him, and he was praying for his friend.”
Witkoff said Putin shared the anecdote with him during Witkoff’s second visit to Russia in mid-March, which, he added, got “personal.” Witkoff said Putin gave him a “beautiful portrait” of Trump that Putin had commissioned by a “leading” Russian artist, and asked that Witkoff bring the painting back to the White House.
Trump “was clearly touched by it,” Witkoff said, sharing the story as part of a broader conversation about Russia-Ukraine negotiations. “So this is the kind of connection that we’ve been able to reestablish through, by the way, a simple word called communication.”
The White House did not respond to questions Saturday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.
Witkoff, a longtime friend of Trump’s and a fellow real estate magnate, has taken on key roles in negotiations over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Witkoff’s trip to Moscow preceded a highly anticipated phone call Tuesday between Putin and Trump during which the Russian president declined to agree to a full 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. Instead, Putin offered to halt attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in exchange for a reciprocal pause on Ukrainian strikes against Russia’s energy sector.
Witkoff’s interview with Carlson, a former Fox News host, was released Friday as a Russian drone strike killed a family of three in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine and as each side accused the other of violating the current agreement.
Negotiators for both sides are also preparing to return to Saudi Arabia on Monday for continued talks. Witkoff told Carlson he believed they were close to a broader ceasefire deal.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy,” Witkoff told Carlson. “That is a complicated situation, that war and all the ingredients that led up to it,” he continued. Carlson nodded, adding, “yes, amen.”
Trump’s attempts to broker a deal to end the war in Ukraine and restore relations with Moscow represent a shift from the Biden administration, which armed Ukraine with the goal of retaking occupied territory from Russian forces until a failed counteroffensive in 2023 dashed those hopes. Since returning to the White House, Trump has been vocal about his desire to work “very closely” with his Russian counterpart to end the war. Trump also has had warm words for the Russian leader since his first term.
In his interview with Carlson, Witkoff said the Trump administration’s goal is still to reach a “30-day ceasefire, during which time we discuss a permanent ceasefire.”
Witkoff pointed to Russian advances in the Kursk region, where Ukrainians hold a sliver of Russian territory, and said Ukrainian troops “are surrounded” there.
“That’s a significant battlefield condition that has to be dealt with” during a 30-day ceasefire, Witkoff said. He added that “Kursk is just the beginning,” because there is a 1,200-mile border where dozens of similar battles and disputes necessitate negotiations.
“We’re going to want everybody in some respect satisfied,” Witkoff told Carlson, adding that he wanted the Europeans, Ukrainians and Russians to feel “that we came out of this thing with a deal that everybody can live with.”
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Gaya Gupta 
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