"On the eve of talks in Saudi Arabia, President Trump's chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff, echoed some of the Kremlin's main talking points on the Ukraine conflict, while advocating for future U.S.-Russian relations based on shared business interests.
In a lengthy interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff articulated a vision for the biggest reset in Washington-Moscow relations since the events in Ukraine in 2022. He also recounted his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, saying the Russian president had a portrait commissioned of Trump.
Witkoff, who insisted he wasn't taking sides, repeated Moscow's assertions that the overwhelming majority of the people in four parts of eastern Ukraine "want to be under Russian rule" and pointed to Kremlin-run referendums in those areas.
"The question is will they be, will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?" Witkoff said. "Will Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict. Absolutely."
The interview came as U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian officials on Sunday and planned talks with a Russian delegation on Monday. The goal, U.S. officials say, is to extend a shaky cease-fire precluding attacks on energy infrastructure to the Black Sea. The U.S. hopes the cease-fire will be followed by broader negotiations.
"We are now going to talk about a Black Sea maritime cease-fire so that both sides can move grain, fuel and start conducting trade again in the Black Sea," national-security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday on CBS. "Then we'll talk about the line of control, which is the actual front lines, and that gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peace keeping, you know, freezing the lines where they are. And then, of course, the broader and permanent peace, which will be some type of discussion of territory for permanent peace."
Ukrainian drones have largely neutralized the military effectiveness of Russia's Black Sea fleet while the Russians have launched air attacks on Ukrainian port cities such as Odesa. Ukraine has managed to secure its shipping routes, but Russia has complained that its own food and fertilizer exports have faced obstacles.
Russian and Ukrainian teams won't meet face-to-face in Saudi Arabia, but will convey their positions to the U.S., which will serve as mediator.
In his interview with Carlson, Witkoff hailed an agreement this month between Russia and Ukraine not to hit each other's energy infrastructure, and said Trump is trying to clinch a fair deal for Ukraine and Russia.
Moscow has lately indicated its interest in the latest round of talks by including a high-level security service official who is close to Putin. At Riyadh, Russia will be represented by Grigory Karasin, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, as well as Sergey Beseda, adviser to the Federal Security Service.
Ukraine is represented by Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's minister of defense. Russia has continued to attack Ukraine with airstrikes and drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social-media post on Sunday.
The U.S. team includes senior officials from Trump's National Security Council and State Department, but not top officials and envoys.
Witkoff was part of a top-level U.S. delegation that met with senior Russian officials in February in Riyadh. On Sunday, he told Fox that he has spent about seven hours with Putin in the course of two one-on-one meetings in Moscow since February.
In the interview with Carlson, Witkoff recounted his second trip during which Putin gave him a portrait of Trump, which he had commissioned "from the leading Russian artist." Putin also told him how he had prayed for Trump when he had been shot." [1]
1. World News: Trump Russia Envoy Echoes Kremlin's Views on Ukraine. Grove, Thomas; Cullison, Alan; Gordon, Michael R. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Mar 2025: A7.
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