London – American and Russian negotiators would meet again in Saudi Arabia on Monday while the White House continued its impulse for a high fire and the eventual peace agreement to end the 3 -year war in Ukraine of Moscow.
A pause proposed on strikes is expected to be directed to the energy infrastructure is among the discussion issues, and both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have already indicated their support, at least in principle, for the plan.
The State News Agency of Russia reported that American and Russian teams began closed doors in Riad on Monday morning.
The envoy of the Middle East of President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, who has been central in the conversations with Moscow and kyiv, expressed the hope of progress on Sunday, telling Fox News that the “Peace Philosophy of the President through the fortress brings people to the table to clarify erroneous concepts and do business.”
“I’m not sure how someone would expect the end of a conflict when you don’t communicate,” Witkoff said.
A photo taken on March 23, 2025 shows a view of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riad, Saudi Arabia, where conversations with US mediation are being made to try to reach a high fire in the War of Russia-Ukraína.
Fayez Nureldine/AFP through Getty Images
The United States Russia meeting on Monday immediately arrives at a meeting between US and Ukrainian teams in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday. Zelenskyy said Sunday night that he had been informed about the “quite useful” discussion by the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, who participated.
“But it doesn’t matter what we are discussing with our partners at this time, Putin must be pressed to issue a real order to stop the strikes, because he who brought this war must be the one who withdraws,” said Zelenskyy, referring to the continuous attacks of missiles and drones of Moscow throughout the country. Ukraine has also continued its own attacks of non -manned aircraft in Russia.
But other comments made by Witkoff during the weekend awakened concerns in Ukraine and elsewhere that the Trump administration is being aligned with false or deceptive Russian narratives about their entertainment and aggression campaigns in Ukraine.
Discussing the partially occupied and claimed Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia since 2022: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, more Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, Witkoff told Tucker Carlson: “They are Russian -speaking Russians, and there are references when most of the Russians have been under the people of the people that have been Russian. “
Witkoff did not recognize that the refeneous assumptions held in these territories, either in 2014 in the case of Crimea or 2022 in the other regions, were widely dismissed by Western powers, human rights organizations and international organizations such as fraudulent and illegitimate.
In September 2022, the then Secretary of the State Antony Blinken said that the United States “does not recognize, and will never recognize any of the statements of Kremlin’s sovereignty about parts of Ukraine that was seized by force and now intends to incorporate Russia.”
Witkoff also promoted the apparent warm relationship between Trump and Putin, telling Carlson that the Russian leader claimed to have prayed for “his friend” Trump after the attempted murder against the president in July 2024. Putin also gave Witkoff a portrait of Trump as a gift, he said.
“This is the type of connection that we have been able to restore through a simple word called communication, which many people would say that they should not have had because Putin is a bad guy,” Witkoff said. “I don’t consider Putin as a bad boy.”
A firefighter works on a site a apartment building beaten by a Russian unmanned aircraft strike in kyiv, Ukraine, on March 23, 2025.
Vladyslav Musiiienko/Reuters
The attacks of mortal cross -border drones continued during the weekend. On Sunday night until Monday morning, the Ukraine Air Force said Russia launched 99 drones into the country, of which 93 were demolished or lost in flight without causing damage.
The Russian air defense demolished 28 drones fired to Russian territory by Ukraine, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Yuriy Zaliznyak, Victoria Beaule, Anna Sergeeva and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
