There is incentive for Russia to end this war: White House

The remarks were made by the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during the White House briefing.

Speaking on the agreement with Russia, whether Russia agreed to anything to Steve Witkoff, Leavitt said that while she wouldn't want to get ahead of the negotiations, "What I can tell is, a productive conversation was had as the Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said last night he believes that Russia wants to end this war and the President believes that as well."

She added, "There is incentive for Russia to end this war, and perhaps that could be economic partnerships with the United States, but we need to see a ceasefire first, and the President and the Presidential Envoy Witkoff made it very clear to the Russians."

Her remarks follow after earlier on Monday, US President Donald Trump on blamed the Joe Biden administration for the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and claimed that the war would not have occurred if the 2020 election had not been "rigged."

Sharing a post on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, "The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden's war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, I had no problem preventing it from happening. President Putin and everyone else respected your President! I had nothing to do with this war, but I am working diligently to get the death and destruction to stop. If the 2020 Presidential Election was not rigged, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible war would never have happened."

He further criticised both former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for their handling of the situation.

"President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin. There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to stop and fast."

Meanwhile, President Trump had said Russia's deadly missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday was "a mistake," calling it a "horrible thing" even as members of his administration went further with condemnation that served as a rare critique of Moscow while the White House is pushing for a ceasefire, the New York Times reported.

"I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it's a horrible thing," Trump said about the Sumy attack.

On Sunday morning, two ballistic missiles struck Sumy, resulting in the deaths of at least 34 individuals and leaving over 100 others injured.

Previously, United States President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported.

On Friday, Putin was shown on state TV, as per Al Jazeera, greeting Witkoff in Saint Petersburg's presidential library at the start of the negotiations, and their talks lasted more than four hours.

The Kremlin said the meeting "focused on various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement", without elaborating.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff might discuss the possibility of the Russian leader meeting Trump face-to-face. According to Al Jazeera, Witkoff is now a key figure in the on-off tete-a-tete between Moscow and Washington amid talk on the Russian side of potential joint investments in the Arctic and Russian rare earth minerals.

The talks came as the US continues efforts to broker a ceasefire deal to end the conflict, which has stalled amid negotiations on the conditions of the deal.