Russia and Ukraine Hold U.S.-Mediated Talks: What to Know
Ukrainian and U.S. officials on Tuesday held a second session of negotiations in Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible limited cease-fire, a day after Russian and American delegations held similar discussions that lasted more than 12 hours.
Kyiv and Moscow have been holding separate U.S.-mediated talks in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to discuss a temporary moratorium on strikes on energy sites, as well as a cease-fire in the Black Sea, a vital route for both nations to export commodities — in what could be a crucial step toward a full cessation of hostilities in Russia's war with Ukraine.
Ukraine held its first session of talks on Sunday, followed by Russia on Monday. A Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said talks continued on Tuesday morning, and Ukrainian news media said they had ended after about one hour. The discussions have been aimed at finding common ground between Kyiv and Moscow, but both sides have cautioned against expecting an imminent deal.
What's on the agenda
The meetings in Riyadh were expected to focus on the details of a tentative agreement between Russia and Ukraine to temporarily halt strikes on energy infrastructure.
But Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Tuesday that the sides mostly discussed the safety of shipping in the Black Sea and the restoration of a grain deal agreed to in 2022 that allowed millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to be exported. Mr. Lavrov said that Russia was in favor of restoring the grain deal, but only if unspecified Russian demands were met.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said on Tuesday that the Russian government was studying the results of the meeting between Russian and American delegations. He called the talks 'technical' and said that the results would not be made public.
President Volodymyr Zelensky had said that Ukraine would prepare a list of infrastructure that could be included in the cease-fire agreement. He added that a third party would have to monitor the cease-fire and suggested that the United States could do so.
Steven Witkoff, whom President Trump has tapped to be his personal envoy to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has said that the ultimate goal of the talks is a 30-day full cease-fire that would allow time for negotiations on a permanent truce.
But the path toward such a truce has been shaky. Moscow continues to insist on maximalist positions, including about asserting territorial control and ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO. The Ukrainian government has repeatedly said that it will not concede to the Kremlin's demands and has accused Mr. Putin of stalling for time.
The Russian delegation
The Russian negotiators are led by Grigory B. Karasin, a senior Russian diplomat and lawmaker, and Sergey O. Beseda, an adviser to the head of the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the country's domestic intelligence agency.
Mr. Karasin described the talks as 'creative,' the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
While Mr. Karasin has been involved in sensitive foreign policy talks before, Mr. Beseda's choice came as a surprise to some.
Mr. Beseda was head of the F.S.B. department responsible for international intelligence operations. He has been described by Russian news outlets as one of the main sources of intelligence that convinced Mr. Putin in 2022 that there was pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine and that a brisk invasion could easily dismantle the government in Kyiv.
In 2023, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, called Mr. Beseda a 'very problematic person' for Ukraine who 'has done a lot of evil.'
The Ukrainian delegation
Mr. Umerov is leading the Ukrainian delegation in Riyadh, along with Pavlo Palisa, a top military adviser to Mr. Zelensky.
Both Mr. Umerov and Mr. Palisa are members of the Ukrainian delegation for peace talks that Mr. Zelensky appointed this month, a group led by his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. Mr. Umerov was a key negotiator for Ukraine in peace talks with Russian diplomats in the early months of the war.
Ukrinform, the state news agency, said the Ukrainian team included deputy foreign and energy ministers, along with Mr. Zelensky's top diplomatic adviser.
Moscow's position
Last week, Mr. Putin told Mr. Trump in a telephone conversation that Russia would agree to a temporary truce only if Ukraine stopped mobilizing soldiers, training troops or importing weapons for the duration of any pause in fighting.
Mr. Putin also demanded the complete halt of foreign military aid and intelligence to Kyiv, calling it 'the key condition for preventing an escalation of the conflict and making progress toward its resolution through political and diplomatic means,' according to the Kremlin's readout of the call.
The White House said that military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine would continue despite the Kremlin's demands. But the Trump administration has been less clear on Moscow's calls for territorial concessions.
Mr. Witkoff echoed a Kremlin talking point on Sunday when he tried to legitimize the staged referendums that the Russian occupation forces held in parts of Ukraine to justify the annexation of those territories taken by military force. 'There is a view within the country of Russia that these are Russian territories,' Mr. Witkoff told Fox News.
Fundamentally, Russia's position regarding the conflict has remained the same. The Kremlin says it wants to 'eliminate the root causes of the crisis' — essentially demanding that Ukraine capitulate.
Kyiv's position
Ukraine had previously agreed to an unconditional 30-day truce to cease all combat operations, at the urging of the Trump administration. But after Moscow said that it would support only a partial cease-fire on energy infrastructure, Mr. Zelensky spoke with Mr. Trump and agreed to the limited truce.
In recent days, Ukrainian officials have set out red lines going into negotiations: Kyiv will never accept Russian sovereignty over occupied Ukrainian territory; it will not agree to be blocked from joining NATO or to reduce the size of its army; and it must have security guarantees as part of any peace settlement.
Many Ukrainian officials and analysts have expressed doubt that even a limited cease-fire would hold for long, noting that previous truces between Moscow and Kyiv were routinely violated, with each side blaming the other.
'I do not believe in a cease-fire. We've been through this before,' Kostyantyn Yeliseyev, a veteran diplomat and former Ukrainian deputy foreign minister who took part in cease-fire negotiations in 2014 and 2015, said in an interview.
What's next?
Mr. Witkoff said on Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin were 'likely' to meet in Saudi Arabia within weeks. American officials will also probably continue talks with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in the Middle East to discuss details of a limited truce.
But the foundations of the diplomatic process have been wobbly, analysts said, with Moscow and Kyiv ready to continue fighting.
'Both sides still believe that they can continue the war regardless of the American position,' said Dmitry Kuznets, a military analyst with the Russian news outlet Meduza, which operates from Latvia after being outlawed by the Kremlin.
He added, 'Moscow's and Kyiv's visions of what an agreement could look like are still infinitely far from each other.'
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