RIYADH (Reuters) – Ukrainian and U.S. delegations are scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia following Russia-U.S. talks there a day earlier on a limited Black Sea ceasefire proposal that Washington hopes will open the way for broader peace negotiations.
Day-long talks on Monday in Saudi Arabia between Russian and U.S. officials were portrayed by Washington as a step in President Donald Trump’s effort to end the three-year-old war.
A White House source said progress was being made in the Riyadh talks and that a “positive announcement” was expected “in the near future.”
A Russian source told Reuters that the Riyadh talks had concluded late on Monday and a draft joint statement had been sent to Moscow and Washington for approval, with the parties aiming to release it on Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that no documents would be signed, the TASS agency reported.
CBS News reported that the U.S. and Russia are expected to release a joint statement on Tuesday morning on their talks in Riyadh.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Monday that his officials in Riyadh will meet with the U.S. team following the Russia-U.S. talks.
Ukraine’s national broadcaster Suspilne cited a source in the Ukrainian delegation as saying the talks will take place on Tuesday.
Last week, Russia rejected a proposal by Trump for a full 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, and it has so far agreed only to a moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure.
On Monday, Trump listed issues he said were on the table: “We’re talking about territory right now. We’re talking about lines of demarcation, talking about power, power plant ownership.”
As the Russian-U.S. talks got underway on Monday, Ukraine and Russia continued their attacks, with Kyiv saying a Russian missile strike wounded at least 88 people and Moscow accusing Ukraine of a targeted attack that killed two journalists and their driver.
“Moscow speaks of peace while carrying out brutal strikes on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
“Instead of making hollow statements about peace, Russia must stop bombing our cities and end its war on civilians.”
MARITIME TRUCE?
The Monday talks in Saudi Arabia follow phone calls last week between Trump Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin and follow a meeting between Ukrainian officials and Americans in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Trump, who has scaled back U.S. diplomatic backing for Ukraine and shifted publicly to a stance far less critical of Russia than that of his predecessor Joe Biden, says he aims to bring a quick end to the war.
The White House says the initial aim of the Saudi talks is to secure a maritime truce in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping.
But maritime battles have been a comparatively limited facet of the war since 2023, after Ukrainian attacks drove Moscow to move its navy far from contested waters, making it possible for Ukraine to reopen ports and resume exports.
“This is primarily about the safety of navigation,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov said. He said a previous U.N.-backed agreement on Black Sea shipping had failed to deliver some of Moscow’s demands.
A source briefed on planning for the Saudi talks said the U.S. side was led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official.
Russia was represented by Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who is now chair of the Russian upper house’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Karasin was cited by Interfax news agency as saying during a break in the talks on Monday that they were progressing “creatively” and that the two sides had discussed issues regarded as “irritants” in bilateral ties.
Trump had expressed broad satisfaction over the way talks have been going and has been complimentary about Putin’s engagement.
But major European powers doubt whether Putin is ready to make real concessions or will stick to what they see as his maximalist demands, which do not appear to have changed since he sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Putin says he is ready to discuss peace but that Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of four Ukrainian regions that Russia has unilaterally annexed.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian delegations were assembled in the same facility in Riyadh.
Beyond a Black Sea ceasefire, Waltz said the teams would discuss the “line of control” between the two armies, which he described as “verification measures, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are”.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow, Steve Holland in Washington, Pesha Magid in Riyadh, Pavel Polityuk, Christian Lowe and Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv, and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Don Durfee in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff, Matt Spetalnick and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Deepa Babington, Rosalba O’Brien and Michael Perry)
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