Witkoff explains why Alaska meeting was so long

The length of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. leader Donald Trump in Alaska was determined by the progress in resolving the conflict in Ukraine achieved there, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview broadcast by Fox News.

"We stayed there for quite some time because we actually made progress on how we might get to a peace deal," Witkoff said.

Speaking about agreements on a permanent settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, he said that there is a big difference between a peace deal and a ceasefire.

"A cease fire deal is very, very easy to break because it doesn't have all the ingredients attached to it. A peace deal is much more different. It's sturdy," Witkoff said.

According to the envoy, Trump began to sense in the meeting in Alaska that they had a lot of the precursors agreed to for a peace deal.