Meet the team Trump picked to negotiate ending the Russia-Ukraine war

Negotiations over ending the war reportedly kicked off "immediately," with Trump previewing on Wednesday that he believes they will reach "a cease fire in the not too distant future."

Fox News Digital took a look at the team of U.S. officials Trump tapped to lead the negotiations as they get underway. 

Witkoff was tapped as the special envoy to the Middle East and served as a key figure in striking a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel ahead of Trump taking office, according to Trump's recent remarks to the press and sources who spoke with Fox News Digital. 

Witkoff, similar to Trump, is a real estate mogul, who founded real estate firm the Witkoff Group in 1997. 

As national security advisor, Trump appointed Mike Waltz, who served as a Republican U.S. congressman representing Florida from 2019 to 2025. 

"We need to get all sides to the table and end this war," he said in the interview. "And it has come up in conversations with President Xi, with Prime Minister Modi, with leaders across the Middle East. Everybody is ready to help President Trump end this war. Let's get all sides to the table and negotiate." 

Waltz is a longtime Trump ally and a decorated retired Green Beret who also served in the National Guard as a colonel. 

Newly minted CIA Director John Ratcliffe also will lead negotiations on reaching peace in Russia and Ukraine. Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021, during the first Trump administration. 

Ratcliff warned during his Senate confirmation hearing to lead the CIA that the nation's premier foreign intelligence agency was falling behind nations such as Russia and China at leveraging technology for intelligence purposes.

"We're not where we're supposed to be," Ratcliffe told the Senate Intelligence Committee in January. 

Ratcliffe served in the U.S. House as a Republican representing Texas from 2015 to 2020. 

Rubio, the first member of Trump's Cabinet to be confirmed and sworn in under his second administration, serves as the nation's 72nd secretary of state. 

Rubio headed to the Munich Security Conference on Thursday - a high-profile annual conference focused on security issues at the international level - where he and Vice President JD Vance met with Zelenskyy on Friday. 

Trump announced that he also spoke with Zelenskyy on Wednesday and that the Ukraine leader wanted to reach a peace deal. 

"He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE. We discussed a variety of topics having to do with the War, but mostly, the meeting that is being set up on Friday in Munich, where Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the Delegation. I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!" Trump wrote. 

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 2022, when Russia invaded its neighboring nation. Trump said on the 2024 campaign trail that he would end the war if re-elected, while claiming it would never have begun if he had been in the Oval Office at the time. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the media on Wednesday when asked about the negotiations that Trump views Putin as both a "great competitor" and "at times an adversary." 

"I believe this nation views Putin and Russia as a great competitor in the region, at times an adversary," Leavitt said when asked how Trump views Russia and Putin. "But as the president has said, as well, he enjoys having good diplomatic relations with leaders around the world. Finding that common ground, also calling them out when they are wrong. Leading from a position of peace through strength. That's the president's greatest strength."