Ukrainian and American officials conversations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to find a path to the end of the war with Russia, hours after kyiv’s forces launched their greatest drone attack in Moscow to date.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hopes that the meeting in Jeddah will revive the “pragmatic” ties of the United States after his disastrous conversations with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, last month and has suggested an initial truce with Russia in the air and in the sea.
The proposal aims to demonstrate that it is working towards Trump’s goal to put an end to war at the speed of lightning, after the president of the United States accused the Ukrainian leader of not being ready for peace and advancing with direct conversations with Russia.
“The meeting has started in a very constructive way,” wrote Andriy Yermak, head of the Zelenskiy cabinet, which leads the Ukrainian delegation, wrote in Telegram.
The anxious European allies of Ukraine are observing any sign of improvement, or greater deterioration, in kyiv’s relations with Trump’s Washington, which US politics has overturned on war and accumulated pressure on Ukraine.
In particular, the United States arrested military assistance and stopped the exchange of intelligence with kyiv, and British prime minister Keir Starmer told Trump on Monday that he expected those movements to be reversed as a result of the conversations.
“Dear Americans, dear Ukrainians, do not lose this opportunity. The whole world is looking at you in Jeddah today. Good luck! “Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote in X.
3 dead in the Moscow drone attack
Ukraine during the night launched its greatest drone attack against Moscow so far, deploying at least 91 drones, killing at least three people, causing fires, closing airports and forcing dozens of flights that were diverted, Russian officials said.
The strike, in which 337 drones were shot down by Russia, according to Moscow, seemed to show that kyiv can also land large blows after a constant flow of missile attacks and Russian drones, one of whom killed 14 people on Saturday.
It occurs when Zelenskiy has been asking his European allies to support the idea of aerial and marine truce that says it would be an opportunity to prove Moscow’s disposition to end war.
As diplomacy develops, positions on the Battlefield of Ukraine are under strong pressure, particularly in the Kursk region of Russia, where Moscow forces have launched an impulse to eliminate kyiv troops, which had been trying to hold a land patch as a negotiation chip.
The Zelenskiy Oval Office clash with Trump left the signing of a bilateral mineral agreement in Limbo and kyiv’s commitment to obtain drifting Washington security guarantees.
Trump has framed the agreement, which will be discussed on Tuesday, as a key to continuing the support and compensation of the United States for many billions of dollars in US military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded three years ago.
Before the conversations, Yermak told reporters that security guarantees were still key to Ukraine, but suggested that they could only see that preliminary on Tuesday.
“The most important thing is how to start this process and we are very open,” he said.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, told journalists on Monday on the way to Jeddah that kyiv conversations would be important to assess whether Ukraine is willing to make concessions to achieve peace.
“We have to understand the Ukrainian position and just have a general idea of what concessions they would be willing to do, because you will not be high the fire and the end of this war unless both parties make concessions,” he said.
The main diplomat of the United States is joining conversations by national security advisor Mike Waltz. Zelenskiy, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, does not bind to conversations.
Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who has been recruited in Ukraine diplomacy, said he expected the US mineral agreement-UKRAINE to signed soon.
Witkoff plans to visit Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, an informed person on the plans said Monday.
Cedent territory?
Ukraine European allies argue that kyiv can only negotiate a peace agreement with Russia from a strength position and that it should not be taken to the negotiating table with an aggressor.
Zelenskiy has said that Putin does not want peace and warned that Russia could attack other European countries if their invasion of Ukraine does not result in a clear defeat.
Rubio declined on Monday to specify concessions that each side would have to do, but said that Kyiv would have difficulty recovering his entire lost territory.
Russia has about a fifth of the territory of Ukraine, including Crimea, which he attached in 2014, and his troops are pressing in the East Donetsk region.
American and Russian officials met in the Saudi capital in February in a rare encounter between the former enemies of the Cold War. The discussions were largely focused on restoring ties after almost total freezing in the official contact under the former president of the United States, Joe Biden, Trump’s predecessor.
