KEY POINTS
- US envoy expects progress in Ukraine-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia
- Trump’s administration moves from Biden’s tough approach to mediation
- Witkoff downplays concerns over Russian expansion
- US envoy says he believes Putin wants peace and Europe is coming to the same view
- Kremlin spokesman says a ceasefire agreement will not be easy
- Russia plans to discuss resuming the 2022 Black Sea grain deal
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s envoy said on Sunday that he expects progress in Ukraine-Russia talks on Monday and that he trusts Russian leader Vladimir Putin does not want to expand the war in Ukraine.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are to hold separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia over the next 48 hours as President Donald Trump pushes for a rapid end to more than three years of war.
“I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries. And from that, you’ll naturally gravitate to a full-on shooting ceasefire,” Steve Witkoff told Fox News.
“I feel he wants peace,” Witkoff said of Putin. “Lots of progress got made last week.”
The US has made a stunning about-face on Russia since Trump took power.
Under former president Joe Biden, Washington treated Moscow as the aggressor and led a Western coalition to put pressure on the Kremlin.
Witkoff said the main US role now was to understand both sides and mediate.
“I’ve never ever seen a situation where there isn’t two sides to a story. It’s just never as black and white as people want to portray. So, there are grievances on both sides but our job … is to narrow the issues, bring the parties together and stop the killing,” he said.
Trump administration’s stance on Russia-Ukraine war
Asked about whether he thinks Russia would seek to occupy more of Ukraine or even go beyond into other parts of Europe, Witkoff said that was “academic.”
“I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe,” Witkoff told Fox News.
“I take him at his word in this sense, so, and I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn’t matter. That’s an academic issue…. The agenda is, stop the killing, stop the carnage. Let’s end this thing.”
Trump’s envoy said, “there’s a view within the country of Russia that these are Russian territories.”
He cited a series of referendums conducted by Russia in annexed territories that purported to show support for Moscow’s rule, but were condemned as illegitimate by Ukraine and much of the international community.
In the view of Moscow, those votes “justify” their actions, he said.
“This is not me taking sides. I’m just identifying what the issues are,” he said.
Russia expects ‘difficult negotiations’
Kremlin spokesman on Sunday downplayed expectations of a swift resolution to the Ukraine conflict, saying that talks were only beginning and that “difficult negotiations” lay ahead.
“We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV on Sunday, ahead of the talks in Saudi Arabia.
He said there were many outstanding “questions” and “nuances” over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian call for a full and immediate 30-day pause, proposing instead to halt attacks only on energy facilities.
“There are difficult negotiations ahead,” Peskov said in the interview, published on social media.
Originally scheduled to take place simultaneously in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the talks on a partial truce could now happen one after the other.
Ukrainian, US delegations meeting
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian and US delegations would meet Sunday, without giving further details on what appeared to be a change in format.
The Kremlin spokesman said Russia’s “main” focus in its talks with the United States would be discussing a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian agricultural exports in the Black Sea.
“On Monday we mainly intend to discuss President Putin’s agreement to resume the Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem,” Peskov said.
Moscow pulled out of the deal — brokered by Turkey and the United Nations — in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.
A senior Ukrainian official previously said that Kyiv would propose a broader ceasefire, covering attacks on energy facilities, infrastructure and naval strikes.
Both sides launched fresh drone attacks on the eve of the negotiations.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack killed three people in the capital Kyiv.
Zelensky urged his country’s allies to put fresh pressure on Russia.
“New decisions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to bring an end to these strikes and this war,” he posted on social media.
The head of Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram: “Russia is not ceasing fire. Putin wants to kill more civilians. This must be stopped.”
Russia said it had repelled nearly 60 Ukrainian drones overnight and announced one man was killed in the southern Rostov region when his car caught fire from falling debris.
