‘The One Who Brought This War Must Take It Away’ – US-Ukraine Talks Wrap Up in Riyadh

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that talks between Ukraine and the US in Saudi Arabia, which wrapped up on Sunday night, were “productive and focused.” Still, President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Moscow needed to end the war.

Umerov said discussions between his team and that of US envoy Steve Witkoff focused largely on energy. The future of the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant near Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest, has been prominently featured in US President Donald Trump’s remarks about the negotiations to bring Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to an end.

“The discussion was productive and focused. We addressed key points including energy,” Umerov wrote on social media.

He noted before the talks that proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure would be on the agenda.

On Sunday, Witkoff promoted Trump’s belief that only he can solve this problem, and the US president promised a ceasefire by Easter. (This year, the two moveable feasts, Catholic/Protestant Easter and Orthodox Easter, are on the same day: April 20.)

“I feel that [Russian leader Vladimir Putin] wants peace,” Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday. He promoted a hopeful vision that any agreement decided upon there at all would lead to ceasefire.

“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,” Witkoff said.

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‘We Can’t Take Zelensky’s Word’ – Russia Demands Guarantees Before Grain Deal

The Russian Foreign Minister claimed that Moscow was open to resuming the Black Sea grain deal, subject to US guarantees.

Zelensky struck a less optimistic chord in his evening address on Sunday.

While he praised the talks as “quite useful” and conducted in a “constructive manner,” he stressed that Moscow is the one continuing to bombard Ukrainian communities and balking at ceasefire proposals.

“Russia is the only one dragging this war out,” Zelensky said. “No matter what we talk about with our partners, we need to push Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes.

“The one who brought this war must take it away,” he said.

His comments come as Moscow continues to launch relentless strikes on residential areas around Ukraine, killing civilians, including children, and destroying well more than a hundred private homes.

Discussions between the White House and Russia are scheduled for Monday, and the Kremlin is already tempering Witkoff’s sunny view with a dose of skepticism.

“We are only at the beginning of this path,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV. Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin has wholly disregarded his voiced agreement to support a ceasefire in theory, and Peskov said on Sunday there were many outstanding questions over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented.

The spokesperson also said the “main” focus in its talks with Witkoff’s team would be a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea Grain Deal that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian farm exports via the Black Sea, which Ukraine nullified by sinking half of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.

“On Monday, we mainly intend to discuss President Putin’s agreement to resume the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem,” Peskov said.

He added that the “potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide variety of spheres between our countries cannot be overstated.”

“We may disagree on some things but that does not mean we should deprive ourselves of mutual benefit,” Peskov said.