Kyiv: US and Russian negotiators Monday sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine, hours after a round of negotiations between US and Ukrainian negotiators, Russian news reports said.
The state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies said the negotiations began in Riyadh. The meeting is expected to be followed by another contact between US and Ukrainian teams.
The separate meetings are set to discuss details of a pause in long-range attacks against energy facilities and civilian infrastructure and a halt on attacks in the Black Sea to ensure safe commercial shipping.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, but the parties have offered different views of what targets would be off-limits to attack.
While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
Russia launched a barrage of drones across Ukraine overnight into Sunday that killed at least seven people, including a father and his 5-year-old daughter in Kyiv.
“There must be more pressure on Russia to stop this terror,” Zelenskyy said in a statement, adding that it “depends on all our partners — the US, Europe, and others around the world”.
Zelenskyy has emphasized 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 mobilisation — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday”, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he expected “some real progress” at the talks in Saudi Arabia, “particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries, and from that you’ll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire”.
AP
