BURSTPresident Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, contends there's a "relatively short distance" to go before a full Russia-Ukraine ceasefire is reached.
“I think the devil’s in the details, we’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our national security adviser [Mike Waltz] and our Secretary of State [Marco Rubio], and I think we’ve got to figure out those details,” Witkoff said during a Tuesday night appearance on Fox News, referencing the upcoming meeting between U.S. and Russian officials.
“The point is, up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus on these two aspects, the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing,” the envoy told host Sean Hannity. “And today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there.”
“I think both of those [terms] are now agreed to by the Russians, I am certainly hopeful that the Ukrainians will agree to it. We have some details to work out of course, but that will begin on Sunday in Jeddah,” Witkoff stated. “And beyond that, we’ll move to a full ceasefire, and we had some good conversation today on the ingredients to achieve that.”
President Trump spoke over the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. The Russian leader indicated he would back a 30-ceasefire on energy infrastructure, but laid out a number of demands, including “the need to stop” Ukraine from mobilizing soldiers and rearming its military. The process of halting the three-year conflict in Eastern Europe, according to the Russian leader's position, should include “complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv."
“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,” the White House said in a readout of the call. “These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
The conversation with Putin comes as Trump has continued his effort to end the war, a promise he outlined during the presidential campaign. On Wednesday, Ukraine and Russia are expected to exchange prisoners, a move Kyiv views as a trust-building exercise.
The military action did not slow down after Trump’s call with Putin.
Infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions — including Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy — was hit, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky spoke with Trump on Wednesday for around an hour, a conversation the commander in chief billed as “very good.”
"Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “We are very much on track, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to give an accurate description of the points discussed.”