White House denies it has agreed 'West Bank-style occupation' of Ukraine by Russia

Russia and the United States have discussed a model for ending the war in Ukraine that mirrors Israel's occupation of the West Bank, The Times has reported.

Under this scenario Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, imitating Israel's de facto rule of Palestinian territory seized from Jordan in 1967.

The idea was raised weeks ago in discussions between Steve Witkoff, President Trump's peace envoy, and his Russian counterparts , according to a source close to the US national security council, which the White House has denied - calling the plan alleged by the anonymous Times source "fake news".

Witkoff, who is also tasked by Trump with bringing peace to the Middle East, is understood to support the idea, which the Americans believe circumvents barriers in the Ukrainian constitution to ceding territory without holding an "all-Ukraine" referendum.

President Zelensky has refused to countenance handing over land but the occupation model may be a mechanism to allow for a truce after three and a half years of war.

West Bank style occupation

Under the model, Ukraine's borders would not change, just as the borders of the West Bank have gone unchanged for 58 years, only under Israeli control.

"It'll just be like Israel occupies the West Bank," the source said before Trump's summit with President Putin in Alaska on Friday. "With a governor, with an economic situation that goes into Russia, not Ukraine. But it'll still be Ukraine, because ... Ukraine will never give up its sovereignty. But the reality is it'll be occupied territory and the model is Palestine."

'Fake news'

Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary, said: "This is total fake news and sloppy reporting by The Times, who clearly has terrible sources. Nothing of the sort was discussed with anyone at any point."

The Express has emailed the White House for comment.

This outcome for Ukraine's occupied territories is seen by some US negotiators as simply reflecting the reality of the war and the refusal by all other nations to become directly involved in fighting Russia. In this view, all that remains is to establish the exact boundaries of Russian occupation, which Putin is seeking to push as far as possible before his talks with Trump in Alaska.

'We recognise the reality'

The scenario would reflect the world view expressed by Sebastian Gorka, Trump's senior director for counterterrorism, during an interview in May.

"We live in the real world. The Trump administration lives in the real world," Gorka told Politico. "We recognise the reality on the ground. Number one, that's the beginning because we're not utopianists and we're not human engineers. We're not some kind of pie in the sky believers in utopia.

"We recognise the reality on the ground and we have one priority above all else, whether it's the Middle East or whether it's Ukraine. It's to stop the bloodshed. Everything else comes after the bloodshed has been halted."

Territorial control

Israeli troops captured the West Bank - land between Israel and the River Jordan - from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War, putting millions of its Palestinian residents under Israeli control.

Today it maintains overall control of the territory, although since the 1990s a Palestinian government known as the Palestinian Authority has run most of its towns and cities.