 "US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (R) and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff attend an interview after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18, 2025. (File/AFP)")
US and Russian officials began discussions in Saudi Arabia on Monday regarding a partial ceasefire in the Ukraine war, following separate talks between Washington and Kyiv a day earlier.
US President Donald Trump is pushing for a swift resolution to the three-year conflict and hopes the negotiations in Riyadh will lead to a breakthrough.
Both sides have put forward different proposals for temporary ceasefires, though cross-border attacks have continued without interruption.
Originally intended to be held simultaneously to facilitate shuttle diplomacy—allowing US officials to move between delegations—the talks are now taking place sequentially.
The meeting between the Ukrainian delegation, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and US officials concluded late Sunday night.
“The discussion was productive and focused – we addressed key points including energy,” Umerov said on social media, adding Ukraine was working to make its goal of a “just and lasting peace” a reality.
The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping, though the area has not been the location of intense military operations in recent months.
As negotiations on a partial ceasefire progressed, Russia launched a barrage of drones across Ukraine overnight on Saturday that killed at least seven people, including a father and his 5-year-old daughter in the capital Kyiv.
In a televised statement Sunday evening, Zelenskyy said that “since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this.”
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More Shorts“There must be more pressure on Russia to stop this terror,” Zelenskyy said, adding that it “depends on all our partners — the U.S., Europe, and others around the world.”
Zelenskyy has emphasised that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Trump, who has repeatedly called for an end to the war in Ukraine, has expressed broad satisfaction over the way talks have been going and has been complimentary about Putin’s engagement in the process so far.
He said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the conflict were ”somewhat under control”.
But there is scepticism among major European powers over whether Putin is ready to make meaningful concessions or will stick to what they see as his maximalist demands that do not appear to have changed since he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS’ ”Face the Nation” on Sunday that the US, Russian and Ukrainian delegations were assembled in the same facility in Riyadh.
Beyond a Black Sea ceasefire, he said, the teams will discuss ”the line of control” between the two countries, which he described as ”verification measures, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are.”
He said ”confidence-building measures” are being discussed, including the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
The Kremlin said the talks will be ”mainly to study the prospects for the possible implementation of a well-known initiative related to the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.”
With inputs from agencies