On Tuesday, negotiations between Ukrainian and US representatives are scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia.
The United States expects crucial advancement during these talks with the Ukrainian delegation and hopes that "critical minerals" will be signed, said Witkoff in an interview with Fox News.
When asked if the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski would come back to Washington to sign this agreement this week, he replied: "I truly hope so. All signals are very, very positive.
— Zelenski sent a letter to the president. He apologized for the full incident., which took place in the Oval Office," Witkoff said. “I think it was an crucial step and there were many discussions between our teams and Ukrainians and Europeans, who are besides essential in this discussion,” he said.
Witkoff besides announced that The US has never suspended intelligence cooperation with Ukraine in the area of its "defensive needs".
On Sunday, U.S. president Donald Trump said that the United States "almost" had completed the suspension of intelligence exchange with Ukraine and that it expects good discussions in Saudi Arabia.
US-Ukraine talks in Riyadh
The subject of the talks will besides be the issue of making available U.S. intelligence, safety guarantees for its citizens, and territorial issues, states Reuters.
The gathering will take place in the same place and in a akin format, as in the meetings of the US and Russia delegations in February. This time the Russian side will not participate in the talks.
The Ukrainian delegation is to be composed of: abroad Minister Andrij Sybiha, Head of president Andrij Jermak's Office, Defence Minister Rust Umierov and Deputy Head of president Paul Palis's Office. president Volodymyr Zelenski will not participate in the talks, but he meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday.
The US is to represent in Saudi Arabia: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US President's National safety Advisor Michael Waltz and Steve Witkoff.
Last Monday, Washington announced it was holding off military support for Ukraine. 2 days later Intelligence assistance has been suspended, which cut off Ukraine from data to mark Russian targets, hampering the operation of HIMARS systems or the operation of air defence.
On Thursday, Bloomberg's agency quoted the comment of erstwhile CIA chief John Brennan, who called the suspension of intelligence assistance for Ukraine the tactics utilized in racketeering and extortion. “We have never, in all my professional experience, cut off intelligence assistance for political benefit,” he stressed.
