US and Russia begin talks in Saudi Arabia, eyeing a Black Sea ceasefire before broader Ukraine agreement
U.S. and Russian officials began talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday aimed at making progress towards a broad ceasefire in Ukraine, with Washington eyeing a separate Black Sea maritime ceasefire deal before securing a wider agreement.
The talks, which followed U.S. negotiations with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, come as U.S. President Donald Trump intensifies his drive to end the three-year-old conflict after he spoke last week to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A source briefed on the planning for the talks said the U.S. side was being led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official.
Russia will be represented by Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who is now chair of the Russian upper house of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and by Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the director of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the U.S., 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.”
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, said on Facebook that the U.S.-Ukraine talks included proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure.
