US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff has announced that talks on a ceasefire in Russia's war with Ukraine will continue on Sunday, March 23, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. "We've got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our National Security Advisor (Mike Waltz) and our Secretary of State (Marco Rubio)," Witkoff told FOX News during an interview on Tuesday. The announcement came hours after a phone call between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, during which they discussed normalizing bilateral ties, prospects for settling the Ukraine conflict, and the situation in the Middle East. Trump said after the call that they agreed to an "immediate" ceasefire that would temporarily halt attacks "on all energy and infrastructure." "I would commend President Putin for all he did today on that call to move his country close to a final peace deal," Witkoff said. The forthcoming Jeddah discussions will focus on key details regarding the ceasefire. "Up until recently, we really didn't have consensus around these two aspects - the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing - 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 are now agreed to by the Russians. I am certainly hopeful that the Ukrainians will agree to it," Witkoff said. On March 18, Russian President Putin agreed to a 30-day halt on strikes against energy infrastructure during his phone call with Trump, according to a Kremlin readout issued on the same day. The statement followed the 1.5-hour phone call between Putin and Trump, during which they discussed ending the war in Ukraine and the U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire to allow for further peace talks. "I would commend President Putin for all he did today on that call to move his country close to a final peace deal," Witkoff commented.
