Ceasefire negotiations enter third day in Saudi Arabia with new US-Ukraine talks
It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire – which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week.
A series of separate meetings between American, Russian and Ukrainian representatives have entered their third day as US negotiators shuttled back to discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in the Saudi capital, a continuation of talks with Kyiv officials that began on Sunday over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said on Tuesday that the talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.
The three days of meetings — which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations — are part of an attempt to hammer out details on a partial pause in the war in Ukraine.
It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire – which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week – with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.
Russia and Ukraine have also taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like, and disagreed over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes — even after US President Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of both countries to advance a deal.
Yet despite the numerous sticking points — the White House has said a partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure”, while the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure” — attempts to secure safe commercial shipping in the Black Sea appeared to garner support in principle from both parties, though no specific agreements have been announced.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday told the country’s state-run Channel One TV station that the Russian and US delegations in Riyadh had discussed “primarily issues of safe shipping in the Black Sea” — a major shipping corridor on which both Russia and Ukraine have ports and coastline.
Mr Lavrov also said that Moscow is up for resuming — “in some form, acceptable to everyone” — a 2022 deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger was a growing threat and high food prices had pushed more people into poverty.
The landmark Black Sea grain initiative was brokered by the UN and Turkey in the summer of 2022. Moscow halted it in July 2023 until its demands to get Russian food and fertiliser to the world were met.
Serhii Leshchenko, adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that US-Ukrainian talks in Riyadh on Sunday had included “the security of shipping and infrastructure, including safety for the (Ukrainian) ports of Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson”.
Mr Leshchenko added that the Ukrainian delegation would brief Mr Zelensky following renewed talks on Tuesday with the US delegation, adding: “Ukraine is ready to support initiatives that will make diplomacy a means of pressure to compel Russia to end the war.”
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the talks in Riyadh “has been reported in the capitals” and was currently being “analysed” by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release any details of what was discussed to the public.
“We’re talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details,” Mr Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organised if the need arises.
“There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment,” Mr Peskov said. He added that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the US and Ukraine.
Senior Russian politician Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-US talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was “very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive”.
“We were at it all day from morning until late at night,” Mr Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Mr Karasin said Moscow’s and Washington’s positions do not always align, but that the two parties will continue to look for ways to co-operate, as there is now an understanding that co-operation is necessary to resolve the conflict.
He added that talks between expert groups from Russia and the US could continue.
It came as the number of people injured on Monday in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.
The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine.
Two people were injured after drone debris fell on a warehouse in the Poltava region, administration head Volodymyr Kohut wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, while two people were injured outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to the head of the region.
One man suffered injuries after a Russian drone attack in Kherson, city administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
