Jeddah hosts next round of talks between USA and Russia

This Sunday, March 23, negotiations will take place between the US and Russia regarding the details of a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The discussions will not focus on a complete halt to hostilities, but specifically on attacks targeting energy infrastructure and other critical infrastructure, according to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East.

"We actually really narrowed the issues, certainly from the Russian standpoint, we were immediately in discussions on tangible, granular ways to move forward towards a ceasefire that included what you've heard about today, which is the ceasefire with regard to energy infrastructure from both sides, something they've been trying to put together for quite some time," he said.

Another issue is "what people colloquially refer to as the Black Sea, and the maritime aspect of a ceasefire— I think both of those are now agreed to by the Russians. I am certainly hopeful that the Ukrainians will agree to it," Steve Witkoff added.

Witkoff added that the sides "have some details to work out, of course," but "that will begin on Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."

Washington will send to Saudi Arabia a team "led by our national security advisor [Mike Waltz] and our Secretary of State [Marco Rubio]" to work on details. 

"The point is that 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," he continued.

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