United States and Russian negotiators meeting in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, have concluded a 12-hour round of talks aimed at securing a partial ceasefire in Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported that Monday’s negotiations had drawn to a close after “more than 12 hours of consultations” with a “joint statement” on results expected on Tuesday.
After the talks with Russia, US officials are to hold more talks with Ukrainian negotiators, according to a senior Ukrainian government source cited by the news agency Reuters.
According to the Doha-based media outlet, US President Donald Trump said Monday that he expected to seal a US-Ukraine revenue-sharing deal on critical Ukrainian minerals soon and his administration was talking to Kyiv about the prospect of US firms owning Ukrainian power plants.
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Monday’s US-Russia talks were primarily focused on ending attacks on Black Sea shipping with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire that would bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.
US officials had already met the Ukrainian team on Sunday to discuss the protection of civilian and energy infrastructure, said Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led his country’s delegation and called the talks “productive."
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig said Ukraine was now eager to see Russia agree to a deal that would protect Black Sea shipping, particularly “the cessation of shelling of Ukrainian ports Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv”.
“Now that’s been a major concern for the Ukrainians. Ukraine really wants their ports operating and running, and that’s why initially they proposed a ceasefire on air and sea,” Baig said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that US and Russian officials were discussing the possible resumption of the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that was supposed to allow Ukraine to ship millions of tonnes of grain and other food exports from its ports.
Moscow pulled out of the initiative, brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations, in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of farm products and fertilisers, Al Jazeera reported
“Nobody is holding their breath here, expecting any breakthroughs. Even the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said there are no expectations for a breakthrough in Riyadh on Monday,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari reported from Moscow.
“What is expected is that they are going to hammer out details of what Russia is asking for. The Russian delegation has been talking to the US officials for at least the past eight hours, as we understand it, about the details of a 30-day ceasefire agreement when it comes to energy and infrastructure and also the Black Sea initiative,” she added.