Donald Trump is trying to reach a deal with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine (Image: Getty)
Talks are taking place today between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia as the two countries aim to agree a ceasefire deal for the war in Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow agreed in principle last week to a limited ceasefire after Donald Trump spoke with Russian leaders.
Today, it is believed that officials want to make progress towards a broad ceasefire, the continuation of the Black Sea grain deal, negotiated in July 2022 as a way of ensuring that Ukraine could export its grain via southern ports, and a continued pause in attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure. Both sides have reportedly offered differing views on which targets would be off-limits to attack. The White House has said that “energy and infrastructure” would be included in the ban, with the Kremlin declaring that the prohibition included only “energy infrastructure”. The diplomacy is taking place after Russian troops launched a new barrage of drones into Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force.
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Ukrainian and US officials have already met in Saudi Arabia (Image: Getty)
Timeline of talks
The White House is reportedly aiming for a truce agreement with Russia and Ukraine by April 20.
The talks between American and Russian officials began today at around 7.30am in Riyadh, a day after US and Ukrainian delegations held negotiations.
These conversations are thought to have involved the prospect of a temporary halt to long-range strikes and a possible temporary maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
Serhii Leshchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the country’s delegation remained in Riyadh on Monday and expected to meet again with Trump’s delegation.
Putin’s team is led by Sergei Beseda, an FSB veteran, and Grigory Karasin, Russia’s former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the UK.
President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is leading the talks for his boss back in the Oval Office. He wants the conversations to eventually result in a “full-on” ceasefire.
Mr Witkoff has dismissed Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for an international force to support a ceasefire as “a posture and a pose”.
Steve Witkoff has dismissed Keir Starmer’s plan for peace (Image: Getty)
What has Ukraine offered?
President Zelensky wants to see railways and ports protected from strikes in a ceasefire deal.
The Ukrainian leader has previously emphasised that he is open to the full, 30-day ceasefire proposed by Mr Trump, AP reports.
He said in a televised statement on Sunday evening: “Since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this.”
Zelesnky added: “But no matter what we say to our partners today, we need to get Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes. Whoever brought this war must take it back.”
President Zelensky has said that he is open to a full 30-day ceasefire (Image: Getty)
What has Russia offered?
The Russian President has hinted that his country overall supports the idea of a complete ceasefire, but has also issued a list of demands.
This includes how the ceasefire would be monitored. The Kremlin has previously rejected the idea of NATO or EU peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine.
In addition, Putin has said a ceasefire would be dependent on the halting of arms supplies to Kyiv, and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilisation.
Russia has also said that Ukraine should never be allowed to join NATO.
Kremlin bosses have recently reiterated, experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report, that any future peace settlement must address the “root causes” of the war.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has defined these as alleged “threats to Russia‘s security from the Ukrainian and Western directions in general” due to NATO’s eastward expansion, and the Ukrainian government’s alleged “extermination” of everything that is “connected with Russia and the Russkiy Mir,” including Russian language, culture, Orthodoxy, and media.
What the US thinks Ukraine should do
Putin wants to address the ‘root causes’ of the conflict (Image: Getty)
It has been reported that Trump appears to have told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that “American ownership” of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants would be in their best interest.
“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” his national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a joint statement after Trump’s one-hour call with Zelensky.
The pair added: “He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise.”
The US President has previously said that Ukraine can “forget about” joining NATO.
Trump also stated on Friday that, as part of negotiations to end the war, parties will have an agreement on “dividing up the lands”.
He told reporters: “They are fighting against each other. I think we’re going to have [a] ceasefire on a lot of areas and so far, that’s all held very well.”
“In getting that ceasefire, they had a lot of guns pointing at each other. You had some soldiers unfortunately surrounded by other soldiers.
“They are going to be — I believe we’re going to pretty soon have a full ceasefire, and then we’re going to have a contract, and the contract’s being negotiated, the contract in terms of dividing up the lands, etc. It’s being negotiated as we speak.”
Donald Trump has suggested that lands could be ‘divided up’ (Image: Getty)
Current state of the war
The ISW reports that Putin and other officials have recently “reamplified Russian narratives” that “Novorossiya”, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has defined as all of eastern and southern Ukraine including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Odesa oblasts, is an “integral” part of Russia.
Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, and now holds parts of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts.
Ukrainian military intelligence says about 620,000 Russian soldiers are operating in Ukraine and Kursk.
Russia has recently reportedly taken the town of Kurakhove and continued advancing to the north east, towards the city of Pokrovsk.
Ukraine officials report that Russian forces are trying to also invade the Sumy region.
Zelensky’s soldiers are attempting to hold back Putin’s troops trying to take back Russia’s Kursk region.
The BBC reports that Russia has also taken control of the city of Sudzha and slashed Ukrainians’ access to the Sudzha-Sumy highway. This was vital for troops logistics.