Ukraine enters critical US war-ending talks with Russia

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a day before critical negotiations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials aimed at resolving the war with Russia.

The talks, which US and Ukrainian officials said would be “very meaningful,” take place Tuesday and will be the first between the two parties since a disastrous White House visit last month by Zelensky aimed at ending the three-year conflict.

Zelensky said he would meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader, on Monday and his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team”.

During talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington wants “to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is “fully committed to constructive dialogue”, but wants its interests to be “taken into account in the right way”.

“We are waiting for results, both in bringing peace closer and continuing support,” he said in an evening address on Sunday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel on Monday to Jeddah, the US State Department said. They are also being joined by Mike Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

Constant contact –

His negotiators will be Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Pavlo Palisa, a military commander and Yermak’s deputy.

Zelensky said Kyiv is in “constant contact with the US team.”

Washington has suspended military aid to Ukraine — as well as intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery — in an attempt to bring it to the negotiating table with Moscow, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

Trump has reestablished ties to Putin and attacked Zelensky, causing concern in Kyiv and across European allies that the US leader might attempt to pressure Ukraine into an agreement that favors Russia.

But on Friday, Trump said he was thinking about even more sanctions against Russia for “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield.

Last week, Ukraine’s European allies held a summit with Zelensky and announced they would significantly boost defence spending.

Britain and France have called for a truce for Ukraine, on land, at sea and in the air and for a cessation of Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s power stations.

Ukrainian and British diplomats met in Kiyv at the weekend, according to Zelensky.

The Saudi discussions followed a public confrontation between Zelensky and Trump in the White House that saw the Ukrainian depart without signing a minerals deal to which he was pressured by the US leader.

Later, Zelensky described the episode as “regrettable” and offered to cooperate with Trump’s “strong leadership.”

He also said he was prepared to sign the deal on strategic mineral stocks.

“We got a letter from Zelensky” that Trump had said, something which Witkoff called ”a very positive first step” and “an apology.

When asked whether Ukraine would sign the deal in Saudi Arabia, Witkoff replied: “I think Zelensky’s offered to sign it and we’ll see if he follows through.”

Not ready for peace –

Witkoff traveled to Moscow in February to secure the release of a jailed US teacher, and he later said he spent hours talking to Putin and developing a relationship with him.

Waltz was in the Oval Office for Zelensky’s contentious meeting with Trump and JD Vance.

He subsequently said on Fox News that Zelensky “is not ready to talk peace,” but “time is not on his side.”

Waltz, in a CNN interview, said that if Zelensky’s “personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting… then I think we have a real issue.”

Saudi mediator –

Saudi Arabia has evolved into a critical venue for American diplomacy regarding Russia and Ukraine.

Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh last month where Lavrov said the country would like to resume dialogue and discuss the Ukraine conflict.

Zelensky has visited Saudi Arabia on several occasions since Russia’s invasion in 2022 but canceled a trip last month because he had not been invited to the Russia-US talks.

Five prisoners in Russian-occupied Ukraine were flown to Riyadh in 2022 for exchange after negotiations led by the crown prince.

Putin said the crown prince also had a role in the release of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned by Russia under an “espionage” charge last year.

A historic American ally, the oil-rich state has been an international pariah since the assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018.

But Witkoff has called Trump’s team a “really good relationship with the Saudis.”