The US-Russian negotiators’ meeting in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has concluded a 12-hour talks aimed at securing a partial ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russia’s state communications agency TASS reported that negotiations on Monday with “more than 12 hours of consultation” with a “joint statement” on the expected results on Tuesday have concluded.
After talks with Russia, US officials are expected to hold more consultations with Ukrainian negotiators, according to senior Ukrainian government sources cited by news agency Reuters.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that he hopes to soon seal off the US Crane revenue sharing agreement on key Ukrainian minerals, and that his administration had spoken with Kiev about the outlook for the US companies owning Ukrainian power plants.
Monday’s US-Russia talks focused primarily on the end of the attack on the Black Sea transport, with the aim of leading to a broader ceasefire that would end the three-year war between Russia and Freine.
US officials have already met with Ukrainian teams on Sunday to discuss the protection of private and energy infrastructure, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said he led a delegation to his country and called the meeting “productive.”
Al Jazeera’s assed Baig reported from Kiev that Ukraine is keen to agree to a deal that protects the Black Sea transport, particularly “stop bombardment of Ukrainian ports Odesa, Carson and Mykolav.”
“Now, that was a big concern for the Ukrainians. Ukraine really wants their port to run and run, so initially they proposed a ceasefire in the air and in the sea,” Baig said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that US and Russian officials are discussing the reopening of the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Moscow has accused the West of failing to maintain its commitment to ease sanctions on Russia’s own agricultural and fertilizer exports in 2023, breaking out of an initiative mediated by Torkier and the United Nations.
No breakthroughs expected
“No one is holding his breath in anticipation of a breakthrough. Even Maria Zakharova, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday there is no hope for a breakthrough in Riyadh.”
“What is expected is to block the details of what Russia is asking for. The Russian delegation has been talking to US officials for the past eight hours about details of the 30-day ceasefire agreement on energy and infrastructure and the Black Sea initiative,” she added.
Oleksi Melnik, co-director of the diplomatic relations and international security program at Ukraine’s Razankov Centre think tank, said the length of the negotiations pointed to the Russian side, again making “increasing” requests and demands.
Speaking to Kiev’s Al Jazeera, he said there was “zero trust between the two sides” and there was no “possibility of a direct meeting” between Moscow and Kiev.
Melnik said the US could increase pressure on the Ukrainian government, but “why is Ukraine engaged in such negotiations if there is no prospect or benefit on the Russian side except for Ukraine’s surrender?”
Maximum demand
The focus on the Black Sea is much narrower than the wide 30-day ceasefire proposed to Russia in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
Last week, after separate calls with Trump, both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin have pledged that Voldimir Zelenki schools will agree to a 30-day limited ceasefire and not attack each other’s territorial energy infrastructure.
However, both sides accused them of carrying out recent attacks on these specific energy targets.
The Kremlin said Monday that Russia is still in a moratorium on Putin’s promise of Trump, despite Kiev continuing to attack Russian energy facilities.
Ukraine said it would only agree to a suspension if formal documents were signed, but accused Moscow of guilty of suspending itself.
Nevertheless, Trump has expressed widespread satisfaction with the way consultations are underway, free to Putin’s involvement in the process so far, and said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation of the conflict are “a bit under control.”
However, there is skepticism among the major European powers as to whether Putin is ready to make meaningful concessions or stick to what they see as his maximalist demands.
While Putin is ready to debate peace, Ukraine must officially drop NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from all territories in the four eastern and southern Ukrainian regions, claimed and largely controlled by Russia.
Continuous attack
The speech on Monday came after Russia launched three consecutive one-night air force attacks on Kiev, causing injury to one of the areas around the Ukrainian capital and a damaged home.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andri Sibikh said Russia must stop the strike, not “issuing a false statement about peace,” in the wake of Russia’s missile attacks on “residential areas” on cities in the northeast.
According to Zelenskyy, the attack injured around 90 people, including 17 children, and damaged schools and hospitals.
“Diplomacy with Moscow must be backed up by firepower, sanctions and pressure,” Sybiha said in X.
Later on Monday, a cyber attack knocked out the online ticketing system of Ukraine’s provincial railway services.
Russia said that firefighters from the southern Krasnodar fought on the fifth day to firefighters at an oil depot attack in Ukraine last week, defeating 227 Ukrainian drones in 24 hours.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that Ukraine carried out two drone attacks at Valuika gas transport stations in the Belgorod region on Saturday.
Additionally, Ukrainian forces said on Sunday that they attempted to attack the Grebovskoegas condensed fields in Crimea, but Russian air defenses repelled the attack.
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