(LONDON) -- Dozens were injured, including children, in a Russian strike on Ukraine, officials said Monday, as American and Russian negotiators meet again in Saudi Arabia in the White House's continued push for a ceasefire and eventual peace deal to end Moscow's three-year-old war on Ukraine.
A proposed pause on strikes targeting energy infrastructure is expected to be among the topics of discussion, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy having already indicated their support -- at least in principle -- for the plan.
Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported that the American and Russian teams began the behind-closed-doors talks in Riyadh on Monday morning. After more than eight hours, they were still ongoing, Russian state media reported.
President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff -- who has been central to talks with both Moscow and Kyiv -- expressed hope for progress on Sunday, telling Fox News that the president's "philosophy of peace through strength brings people to the table to clear up misconceptions and to get peace deals done."
"I'm not sure how anyone would expect an end to a conflict when you're not communicating," Witkoff said.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said this weekend that "there are difficult negotiations ahead." spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television, "We are only at the beginning of this path."
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said proposals to ensure the safety of Black Sea shipping would be among the topics discussed in Saudi Arabia, suggesting the idea came from Trump and was agreed to by Putin.
The U.S.-Russia meeting on Monday comes on the heels of a meeting between the American and Ukrainian teams in Riyadh on Sunday. Zelenskyy said Sunday evening he had been briefed on the "quite useful" discussion by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who took part.
"But no matter what we're discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes -- because the one who brought this war must be the one to take it back," Zelenskyy said, referring to Moscow's continued missile and drone attacks across the country. Ukraine has also continued its own long-range drone strikes into Russia.
Witkoff remarks spark concern
Other remarks made by Witkoff over the weekend again piqued concerns in Ukraine and elsewhere that the Trump administration is aligning itself with false or misleading Russian narratives about its decades-long campaigns of meddling and aggression in Ukraine.
Discussing the Ukrainian regions partially occupied and claimed annexed by Russia since 2022 -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- plus Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, Witkoff told conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, "They are Russian-speaking, and there have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule."
Witkoff did not acknowledge that the supposed referenda held in those territories -- whether in 2014 in the case of Crimea or 2022 in the other regions -- were widely dismissed by Western powers, human rights organizations and international bodies as fraudulent and illegitimate.
In September 2022, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. "does not, and will never, recognize any of the Kremlin's claims to sovereignty over parts of Ukraine that it's seized by force and now purports to incorporate into Russia."
Witkoff also touted the apparent warm relationship between Trump and Putin, telling Carlson that the Russian leader claimed to have prayed for "his friend" Trump after the assassination attempt against the president in July 2024. Putin also gave Witkoff a portrait of Trump as a gift, he said.
"This is the kind of connection that we've been able to reestablish through a simple word called communication, which many people would say I shouldn't have had because Putin is a bad guy," Witkoff said. "I don't regard Putin as a bad guy."
Witkoff's latest remarks have deepened concerns in Ukraine as to the Trump administration's approach to the nascent peace process.
"What he has said is absolutely unacceptable," Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. "Listening to his interview I thought to myself: 'Who is he? The American president's envoy or Putin's envoy?'"
Witkoff, Merezhko added, may have fallen for "Russian propaganda" or may be trying to win Putin's support for Trump's ceasefire proposal.
Regardless, Merezhko urged Trump to disavow what he called Witkoff's "dangerous statements."
Strikes continue
Meanwhile, deadly cross-border drone attacks continued through the weekend. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 99 drones into the country, of which 93 were either shot down or jammed. The attacks caused damage in five regions of Ukraine.
Russian air defense shot down 28 drones fired into Russian territory by Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Nearly 90 people, including 17 children, were injured in a Russian missile strike on Sumy, local authorities said Monday. A school was partially destroyed in the strike, and several apartment buildings were damaged, local authorities reported on social media.
"Moscow speaks of peace while carrying out brutal strikes on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.
"A few hours ago, another horrific Russian bombing of Sumy's city center injured dozens [of] civilians, including many children," Sybiha said. "Instead of making hollow statements about peace, Russia must stop bombing our cities and end its war on civilians."
ABC News' Yuriy Zaliznyak, Victoria Beaule, Anna Sergeeva and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
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