U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Thursday that the Trump administration’s effort to end the war in Ukraine is aimed at securing “Russian business deals for Trump and Witkoff and their friends.” He made the remark a day after special envoy Steve Witkoff called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a humanitarian” for releasing a detained American.
“This video makes sense as long as you understand that the game is to settle the war in terms that get Russian business deals for Trump and Witkoff and their friends,” Murphy wrote in a post on X on Oct. 22. He was quoting another user’s post that carried a 16-second clip of Witkoff’s comments to Putin. Murphy did not say which deals he meant and did not add replies in the thread.
Witkoff met Putin at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Oct. 21, the day Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan who had been held since 2022. According to the Kremlin’s transcript, Witkoff opened by thanking Putin for the release. “Because of you, he is going home to his family,” he said.
“He is a 75-year-old man. You talk so much about my President, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir. I salute that. I commend you, and I thank you again,” Witkoff said, according to the transcript. Putin had begun the meeting by thanking Trump for his attention to the Ukraine conflict, which he said was a special matter for Trump “primarily for humanitarian reasons.”
Later in his opening remarks, Witkoff turned to economic ties. “The business and economic cooperation between our governments is an example of what the possibilities are in the future. I think it has been really, really good dealing with Kirill,” he said, referring to Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who attended the meeting. “Our Treasury Department is working with you now independently,” Witkoff told Dmitriev, adding that the two sides “even talk about it now openly with the Ukrainians.”
Witkoff also thanked Putin for lifting export controls on Russian diesel, calling it “a really important act on your part.” Putin replied that the first tanker, carrying 40,000 tonnes, would leave “in two or three days” and offered to supply fertilizer to the American market. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control authorized transactions in Russian-origin diesel on Oct. 9 under General License 135, and Trump’s Oct. 16 executive order waived most sanctions and duties under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, including its ban on new U.S. investment in Russia.
Murphy’s post did not cite a specific transaction. The New York Times reported on Oct. 3, citing people familiar with the talks, that Putin had raised the sale of Lukoil’s international assets with Witkoff and Jared Kushner in September, and that a group led by Todd Boehly, a donor to a pro-Trump committee, was the leading bidder. A spokeswoman for Witkoff told the Times that he “has no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter,” and the newspaper said there was “no indication that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff themselves stand to profit.” The Treasury has not announced approval of a sale.
Witkoff described the meeting differently on his official account. “In St. Petersburg, we met with President Putin to build on the progress made in Oslo with President Zelenskyy, discuss a peace framework, and thank President Putin for releasing American citizen Stephen Hubbard,” he wrote on Oct. 21, adding that the talks “will continue with trilateral talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine at the technical level.” In a separate post, he wrote that the release “was not part of an exchange – and we extend our thanks to President Putin for releasing him on President Trump’s request.”
Asked at a White House roundtable on cybercrime later on Oct. 21 whether he would describe Putin the same way, Trump said: “Well, I guess you have — could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out. But, you know, I — I wouldn’t say anything one way or the other.” He added that “the last thing I want to do is upset an apple cart where we’re getting close to settling a war,” and said the United States “gave nothing in exchange” for Hubbard.
The White House’s Rapid Response account defended the envoy that evening. “Should the Special Envoy have insulted the man, imperiled the release of an American citizen, and torched any possibility of finally resolving a war that has gone on for far too long?” it wrote. “These things are complicated. This is why you’re not a negotiator.”
Some Republicans also criticized Witkoff’s wording. “WTF, Steve? Look up the definition of ‘humanitarian.’ What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote on Oct. 21. Senator John Cornyn of Texas wrote, “No. Putin is stone cold killer.”
Murphy posted the comment during a campaign swing for Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan and Minnesota. As of Friday morning, neither Witkoff nor the White House had responded to him directly on their X accounts.
The statement that the administration’s goal is “Russian business deals for Trump and Witkoff and their friends” is Murphy’s characterization, and his post offered no evidence for it. The Kremlin transcript records Witkoff praising U.S.-Russian “business and economic cooperation” and Treasury’s work with Dmitriev, but it does not describe any deal that would benefit Trump, Witkoff or people close to them. Reporting on the proposed Lukoil sale rests on unnamed sources, Witkoff’s office has denied any financial stake, and the Treasury has not announced approval of the transaction.