"Witkoff, who met with Putin in St. Petersburg on April 11, described the meeting as productive, claiming the Russian president expressed a desire for "a permanent peace," though it "took a while for us to get to" that point."This peace deal is about these so-called five territories," Witkoff said in comments for Fox News. "But there's so much more to it. I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large."Though Witkoff did not name the territories directly, he appeared to refer to Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and the partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Moscow declared the annexation of the latter four regions in 2022. The envoy also hinted at a broader strategic ambition tied to business incentives.