Vladimir Putin went to church to pray for Donald Trump after he was shot on stage at a rally last year, top envoy Steve Witkoff has revealed.

The Russian leader also commissioned a portrait of the US president which he sent to Trump as a gift.

The revelations were made by Trump’s chief negotiator who appeared in an interview wit ex-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Friday. 

‘President Putin asked a renowned Russian artist to create a stunning portrait of President Trump. Afterward, he presented it to me and requested that I deliver it to President Trump,’ he shared.

‘The interaction was incredibly kind. [He] also shared a touching anecdote with me. He mentioned how, following the president’s shooting incident, he visited his local church, spoke with his priest, and prayed for his recovery.’

‘Not because he was the president of the United [States]… but because he had a friendship with him, and he was praying for his friend.’

Last summer, during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump, who was then the Republican presidential nominee, came under attack. Gunman Thomas Matthew Cooks unleashed a hail of bullets, one of which narrowly missed Trump, grazing his ear. 

Witkoff’s remarks did nothing to detract from suspicions of a pally relationship between Trump and Putin. 

Vladimir Putin went to church to pray for Donald Trump when he was shot last year, top envoy Steve Witkoff has revealed

The Russian leader is also said to have commissioned a portrait of Trump

The revelation comes as Putin and Trump took the first steps this week toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. Pictured: View shows damaged private houses at a site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Hostomel, Kyiv region, Ukraine March 19, 2025

It comes as both leaders took the first steps this week toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine as they agreed to an ‘energy and infrastructure ceasefire.’

The partial ceasefire agreement will be in effect for 30 days. 

Talks for a permanent peace will ‘begin immediately’ in the Middle East although Putin told Trump that he has several conditions he wants met in order for the fighting to end.

‘The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East,’ the White House said in its readout of the call.

Witkoff also said that the Putin-occupied regions of Ukraine – Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia – were ‘Russian-speaking’, saying ‘there were referendums there where the overwhelming majority of people showed that they want to be under Russian rule’.

These were votes at gunpoint after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which have not been recognised by Western countries.

Yet despite this, Witkoff said: ‘That’s the elephant in the room.

‘The elephant in the room is the constitutional issues within Ukraine about what they can give up when it comes to giving up territory.

Three people were killed and 12 more were wounded in a Russian drone attack on Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday morning

Rescuers work on site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia

Police officers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian drone strike in a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia,

‘The Russians have de facto control over those territories.

‘The question is, will the world recognise that these are Russian territories?

‘Will Zelensky survive politically if he does? That’s the central issue of the conflict.’

Meanwhile, heavy fighting between Russia and Ukraine has continued. 

Three people were killed and 12 more were wounded in a Russian drone attack on  Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday morning. 

Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that ‘residential buildings, private cars, and social infrastructure facilities were set on fire’ in the attack Friday night, and published photos showing emergency services scouring the rubble of damaged residential buildings for survivors. 

The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 179 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday.

It said 100 were intercepted and another 63 ‘lost,’ likely having been electronically jammed.

Officials in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions also reported fires breaking out due to the falling debris from intercepted drones.

Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off limits to attack.

The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, saying: ‘We will not be against any format, any steps toward unconditional ceasefire.’