Trump says Russia “has been fine on Ukraine” after Kharkiv deaths
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday in a bid to advance a Ukraine settlement, The Guardian reported. Families in Kharkiv were holding funerals for four adults and two children killed in a drone strike, including one-year-old Anhelina and her schoolteacher mother, Inna Mariukhna. President Donald Trump said Russia “has been fine on Ukraine” shortly after the bombing and later described those killed as “mostly young soldiers.”
In his analysis, Andrew Roth described the meeting as an effort to close a deal on Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine through maximum pressure on Kyiv and flattery of the Kremlin.
The Guardian described Witkoff as a real-estate mogul who, thanks to being Trump’s friend, was now the U.S. senior envoy and diplomat to end what the outlet called the largest European conflict since the second world war. Witkoff told Putin, “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” then said, “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you.”
Witkoff’s goal also included bringing home a U.S. citizen whom The Guardian described as a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan detained in Russia. Roth assessed that if Witkoff wanted to buy a peace deal by 3 November through flattering Putin, the effort would amount only to an opening move in the White House’s approach.
As Witkoff spoke, families of the six people killed in a drone strike in a park near Kharkiv that week were holding funerals. The Guardian reported that the youngest victim was Anhelina, a one-year-old girl killed while sitting strapped into her stroller in a playground. Her mother, Inna Mariukhna, a local schoolteacher, was also killed. The final death toll was four adults and two children: Anhelina and an 11-year-old girl.
As Witkoff met Putin, sirens announcing the arrival of Shahed drones overhead sent schoolchildren down a reinforced stairway into an underground school. Roth described the site as no ordinary bomb shelter but one of 10 underground schools Kharkiv had constructed because of Russia’s regular bombing of the city, less than 20 miles from the border.
Teachers said parents had welcomed the schools because they were safe and because the shelters offered children a way to maintain an uninterrupted school day during a war that could last years more and reignite even if a shaky peace deal were reached.
Olena Svytlychna, head of the education department of the Novobavarskyi region in Kharkiv, said while sitting in the school’s cafe on Wednesday, “We all believed in Trump. We all really had hopes for America and for Trump to stop this monster Putin,” and added, “And now we have doubts, we don’t believe them. And we are very scared.”
Shortly after the bombing, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine.” After criticism of the remark, he mentioned the attacks in passing from the Oval Office on Tuesday, saying there were “some people in a town that got hit or whatever, but mostly young soldiers” who died. The Guardian characterized the aside as an attempt to downplay the shelling of civilians, while Roth wrote that those words would cost the White House little.
Roth wrote that the Kharkiv deaths had “barely earned a mention from the White House” as the administration “pushes for Ukraine to capitulate as quickly as it can this week.” The push came before the 3 November midterm elections, when voters would deliver a “referendum on Trump’s leadership for the last two years.”
The Guardian said it had recently obtained a Russian strategy document showing the Kremlin’s potential to black out Ukrainian cities that winter. The document proposed cutting electricity by up to 90% in “cities such as” Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv, where millions of people live, “to intentionally create a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Roth wrote that nightly barrages levelled at power plants for cities across Ukraine showed the Kremlin had decided to move forward with the strategy “until Kyiv surrenders.”
Roth described Witkoff’s praise as a rare distinction during Putin’s 26 years in power. Roth cited bombing campaigns in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, the jailing of thousands of Russian citizens for dissent, and the violent deaths of prominent opposition journalists and politicians in what he called “barely disguised assassinations and poisonings.” Roth said those records made it difficult to identify Putin’s credentials as a humanitarian. He also noted that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
MSI previously reported that Trump tells Putin he is prepared to help end Ukraine war, adviser says. The later meeting with Witkoff continued that U.S. effort to end the conflict, while the Kharkiv deaths showed that the war remained active.