US and Ukrainian delegations start talks to end war with Russia
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US and Ukrainian diplomatic delegations kicked off high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that Kyiv hopes can restore its fraught relationship with Washington and restart American weapons supply and intelligence-sharing.
The Ukrainian group is predicted to current US officers with a proposal for a partial ceasefire during which Ukraine and Russia would chorus from long-range drone and missile strikes, assaults on power and civilian infrastructure, and navy actions within the Black Sea.
“The group has arrived, we’re on the brink of work,” high presidential aide Andriy Yermak, who leads the Ukrainian delegation, wrote on Telegram.
The talks, which started at noon in Jeddah, got here as each Ukrainian and Russian forces launched recent assaults on one another’s territory.
On Monday evening, authorities in Moscow reported that no less than 91 drones had focused the Russian capital in one of many largest drone assaults on the town since Russia’s full invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian authorities additionally reported drone strikes on a number of areas of the nation in a single day.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio advised reporters that Washington would search to “perceive the Ukrainian place” and gauge the concessions Kyiv could be able to make.
The US’s high diplomat added on the eve of the talks that Kyiv would want to cede some territory to Russia as a part of a peace deal.
“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and clearly it’ll be very troublesome for Ukraine in any cheap time interval to type of pressure the Russians again all the way in which to the place they have been in 2014,” Rubio stated, referring to Ukraine’s borders earlier than the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea that 12 months.
US nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s particular envoy for the Center East, are becoming a member of Rubio within the US delegation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Saudi Arabia to fulfill Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, however will not be collaborating within the discussions with the US.
“Ukraine’s place in these talks will probably be absolutely constructive,” Zelenskyy stated on X.
Ukraine has scrambled up to now 10 days to fix its ties with the Trump administration after a disastrous assembly on the White Home between Zelenskyy and the US president.
The dispute led Washington to postpone the signing of a minerals deal and pause all navy help to Ukraine, together with the sharing of intelligence that Kyiv has relied on to hit Russian targets past the frontline.
Witkoff advised Fox Information on Monday that intelligence-sharing could be mentioned on the talks, however denied that Washington had stopped offering intelligence for defensive functions.
Witkoff additionally stated Zelenskyy had apologised for the White Home argument in a letter despatched to Trump.
The halt in US navy help coincided with a brand new Russian offensive within the Kursk area, which was seized by Ukrainian forces in August.
Ukraine stated Russia had launched ballistic missiles and 126 kamikaze drones at a number of of its areas in a single day as a part of a near-daily marketing campaign of assault that has lasted a number of weeks.
The Ukrainian drone assault on Russia killed two folks and wounded no less than 14 others. Russia’s defence ministry stated it had recorded 337 unmanned aerial automobiles throughout the nation, together with an intense assault on Moscow.
Photographs from the capital shared on social media confirmed a number of high-rise condominium blocks with hearth and dozens of burnt-out automobiles. Officers claimed all of the drones have been shot down by Russian air defences.
