US talks with Russia begin in Saudi Arabia eyeing a Black Sea ceasefire

RIYADH: US 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 US negotiations with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, come as US President Donald Trump intensifies his drive to end the three-year-old conflict after he last week spoke to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A source briefed on the planning for the talks said the US 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.

The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping, though the area has not been the location of intense military operations in recent months.

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.

The talks are taking place amid deep scepticism in some European countries and in Britain about whether Putin is ready to make meaningful concessions or will stick to what they see as his maximalist demands that do not appear to have changed since he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.

Trump, who has expressed broad satisfaction over the way talks have been going and who has been complimentary about Putin’s engagement in the process so far, said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict were “somewhat under control”.

Russia hopes for ‘progress’ at Saudi talks: negotiator

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the US, 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.”

He said “confidence-building measures” are being discussed, including the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, said on Facebook that the US-Ukraine talks included proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure.

Putin not a ‘bad guy,’ Trump envoy says

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who met Putin in Moscow in early March, played down concerns among Washington’s NATO allies that Moscow could be emboldened by a deal and invade other neighbours.

“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 told Fox News.

“I feel that he wants peace,” Witkoff said of Putin.