Ukraine, US teams begin talks in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Ukrainian and US officials began talks on Sunday on proposals to safeguard energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s defense minister said, part of a diplomatic push by US President Donald Trump to end three years of war.

The meeting in Saudi Arabia, which precedes talks on Monday between the US and Russian delegations, came as US special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about the chances for ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

“I feel that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants peace,” Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday.

“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.”

Separately, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday the United States was talking through a range of confidence-building measures aimed at ending the war, including on the future of Ukrainian children taken into Russia.

Announcing the start of the Riyadh talks, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is heading his country’s delegation, said on Facebook: “We are implementing the President of Ukraine’s directive to bring a just peace closer and to strengthen security.”

Putin agreed last week to Trump’s proposal for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, but that narrowly defined ceasefire was soon cast into doubt, with both sides reporting continued strikes.

A large-scale Russian drone attack on Kyiv overnight killed at least three people, including a 5-year-old child, causing fires in high-rise apartment buildings and damage throughout the capital, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

Meanwhile Russian authorities said on Sunday that their air defenses had destroyed 59 Ukrainian drones targeting the country’s southwestern regions, adding that the strikes had killed one person in Rostov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, facing continued advances by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, has backed Trump’s call for a blanket 30-day ceasefire.

‘SOMEWHAT UNDER CONTROL’
Trump said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the Ukraine-Russia war were “somewhat under control.” The US hopes to reach a broad ceasefire within weeks, targeting a truce agreement by April 20, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the planning.

Asked on Sunday about the goals for the broader negotiations, US National Security Adviser Waltz said that after a Black Sea ceasefire was agreed, “we’ll talk the line of control, which is the actual front lines.”

“And that gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are,” Waltz said. “And then of course, the broader and permanent peace.”

Britain and France are leading European efforts to beef up military and logistical support for Ukraine, and a number of countries have announced plans to increase defense spending as they try to reduce their reliance on the United States.

However, Witkoff on Sunday played down concerns among Washington’s European NATO allies that Putin might be emboldened by any peace deal in Ukraine to invade other neighbors.

“I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe. This is a much different situation than it was in World War Two,” Witkoff said.