The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the US and Russian delegations met on 24 March 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / YAHYA ARHAB
US and Russian officials began talks about a potential peace deal for Ukraine in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Monday morning, a day after the US delegation met with representatives of Ukraine for similar discussions that Kyiv later described as “productive”.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, the Ukrainian delegation is still in Riyadh and is “awaiting the results” of Monday’s negotiations between Russia and the US.
On Sunday, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, hailed the talks between Kyiv and Washington as “productive and focused”, and said that the two sides had discussed “key points” necessary for reaching a ceasefire agreement, including the safeguarding of energy infrastructure in both countries.
“President Volodymyr Zelensky’s goal is to secure a just and lasting peace for our country and our people — and, by extension, for all of Europe”, Umerov said, adding that the Ukrainian negotiators were “working to make that goal a reality”.
In his evening address to Ukrainians on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the talks with the US delegation had proven “useful”, but accused Russia of prolonging the war through its continuing airstrikes on Ukraine, including a drone strike on Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday morning that killed three people.
“No matter what we’re discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes”, Zelensky said, stressing that “without pressure on Russia, those in Moscow will continue to show contempt for real diplomacy and keep destroying lives”.
Earlier on Sunday, US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier in March, told Fox News he felt the Russian leader wanted peace and expressed his optimism that progress could be made in Monday’s talks between Russia and the US.
"I think that you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, 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”, Witkoff said.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that the Trump administration was aiming to have Russia and Ukraine agree to a ceasefire by Easter on 20 April, but that it was also aware that the “large gaps between the positions of the two sides” made that an ambitious goal.
The Kremlin appeared to cast doubt on that timeline on Sunday, with Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warning that there was “very serious, painstaking work” still to be done before a ceasefire agreement could be reached.
