ANDREW NEIL: There's only one grim conclusion from the latest Saudi talks: Trump isn't pursuing a just peace for Ukraine - but an unjust victory for Russia

JD Vanceu.S Vice President

Steve Witkoff is a great guy doing an incredible job

Vance wrote on social media on Monday

He [Witkoff] is echoing Russian propaganda. And I have to ask, who is he? Is he Trump’s envoy, or perhaps Putin’s? I don’t have an answer to that question,

Merezhko said

Steve Witkoff repeats almost word for word Russian demands that Russia wants Ukraine to surrender areas of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that under Ukrainian control now."

Yuriy Boyechko, Hope for Ukraine CEO

There are constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede to with regard to giving up territory. The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is, will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?"

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff

As of 1700 GMT on Sunday, the area of the fire at the depot near the village of Kavkazskaya was around 2,000sqm (21,500sqft)

the administration said on Telegram

One of the tanks and oil products inside the facility are burning,

the administration said in a post on the Telegram yesterday

Rustem Umerovdefence minister

We discussed key issues, particularly the energy sector,

Mr Umerov said in a post on social media

I don't regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart.”

He added

Now I've been asked my opinion about what President Putin's motives are on a larger scale. And I simply have said that I just don't see that he wants to take all of Europe,

Witkoff said

We are only at the beginning of this path,

he told reporters this weekend

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,

he said Sunday

This is a much different situation than it was in World War II. There was no NATO,

he added

I think it's a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic. There is this sort of notion that we have all got to be like Winston Churchill. (And thinking that) Russians are going to march across Europe. That is preposterous by the way. We have something called Nato that we did not have in World War Two."

Asked about the plans to create a "coalition of the willing" to provide military security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Mr Witkoff said

I took the view that it was better to pick up the phone and talk to both sides to try and get them back on the same page.”

Sir Keir added

On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” ... I like and respect him. I understand what he’s trying to achieve.”

In an interview with the New York Times published hours later, Sir Keir said of Mr Trump ... He added

It's clear from this that the only difference between Steve Witkoff's and Vladmir Putin's views on the war in Ukraine is that Putin actually knows the names of all the five Ukrainian regions he wants to keep."

Yaroslav Trofimov, the Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday

Brit Humechief political analyst

Witkoff's answer here is pure mush. Putin is a tyrant and his political opponents are often defenestrated. I wonder what this wizard thinks is the other side of those stories."

Fox News' chief political analyst Brit Hume wrote on X on Sunday

Witkoff uncritically repeated several inaccurate Russian claims regarding the status of the Ukrainian territories that Russia illegally occupies."

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, wrote on X on Saturday

Gabrielius Landsbergisformer lithuanian Foreign Minister

Witkoff's repeating of Kremlin lies about 'russian-speakers' wanting to 'join Russia' is truly chilling. This is nothing less than carte blanche for Putin's genocidal imperialism. Hearing Americans talk like this should be an electric shock for Europe, not a wakeup call."

Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X on Saturday

Fact-checking (by me). I spoke with people in occupied regions who participated in referenda. They said those who refused to vote or voted the wrong way were taken by Russians and tortured."

Former Ukrainian Minister of Economy Tymofiy Mylovanov wrote on X on Sunday