File: US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP)
Washington: US President Donald Trump's envoy said on Sunday he expects progress in Ukraine-Russia talks on Monday and that he trusts Russian leader Vladimir Putin does not want to expand his invasion of the pro-Western country.
"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 the "Fox News Sunday" program.
Trump's national security advisor Mike Waltz echoed Witkoff's optimism.
"We're moving closer, and we're closer to peace than we ever have been," he told CBS's "Face the Nation."
Waltz also described what he said the next steps would be.
"The progression will be, we have this ceasefire on aerial infrastructure that went in place immediately after President Trump's call with President Putin this week, we are now going to talk about a Black Sea maritime ceasefire so that both sides can move grain, fuel and start conducting trade again in the Black Sea," he said.
"Then we'll talk the Line of Control, which is the actual front lines. And that gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are.
"And then, of course, the broader and permanent peace."
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 feel he wants peace," Witkoff said of Putin, whose forces have been occupying swaths of Ukraine since 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
"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.
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.
"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."
In another sign of how far Washington has drifted from its previous condemnations of the Russian occupation in Ukraine, 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 occupied 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.
