Agencies WASHINGTON

The biggest obstacle to resolving Russia’s war in Ukraine is the status of Crimea and the four mainland Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia, said US special envoy Steve Witkoff, calling them “the elephant in the room” in peace talks.

In an interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, Witkoff,  – who also revealed Russia’s President Putin had commissioned a portrait of Donald Trump and sent it to him – said the administration was making progress “that no one thought was possible” with Russia, but that issues of territory still need ironing out.

The four mainland regions, which Witkoff appeared to struggle to name and needed prompting from Carlson, were annexed during Russia’s full-scale invasion and Kyiv vehemently opposes giving them up.

Talks are set to resume Monday in Saudi Arabia, with US officials set to meet officials from both Russia and Ukraine. The Kremlin has since staged referenda on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Kyiv and the international community decried as a propaganda exercise, but which Witkoff claimed was evidence of the desire of the people  there to split from Ukraine.

“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff said of the four eastern regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.” Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy who also plays a key role in talks with Russia, said the “constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede… with regard to territory” had become “the elephant in the room” during negotiations.

“The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?” Witkoff asked. “Can (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict.”