United States officials are set to meet with their Ukrainian counterparts again after a round of talks with Russian negotiators on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian official told the AFP news agency that the meeting would be held later on Monday after US and Russian delegations wrap up their day’s talks in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
Monday’s US-Russia talks were primarily focused on ending attacks on Black Sea shipping, with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire agreement that would bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.
US officials had already met the Ukrainian team on Sunday to discuss the protection of civilian and energy infrastructure, said Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the delegation and called the talks “productive”.
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig said Ukraine was now keen to see Russia agree to a deal that would protect Black Sea shipping, particularly “the cessation of shelling of Ukrainian ports Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv”.
“Now that’s been a major concern for the Ukrainians. Ukraine really wants their ports operating and running and that’s why initially they proposed a ceasefire on air and sea,” said Baig.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that US and Russian officials were discussing the possible resumption of the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that was supposed to allow Ukraine to ship millions of tonnes of grain and other food exports from its ports.
Moscow pulled out of the initiative – brokered by Turkey and the United Nations – in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s own exports of farm produce and fertilisers.
No breakthrough expected
“Nobody is holding their breath here expecting any breakthroughs. Even the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said there are no expectations for a breakthrough in Riyadh on Monday”, said Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow.
“What is expected is that they are going to hammer out details of what Russia is asking for. The Russian delegation has been talking to the US official for at least the past eight hours, as we understand it, about the details on a 30-day ceasefire agreement when it comes to energy and infrastructure, and also the Black Sea initiative”, she added.
Oleksiy Melnyk, co-director of Foreign Relations and International Security Programmes at Ukraine’s Razumkov Centre think tank, said the length of the negotiations pointed to the Russian side once again making “more and more” requests and demands.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Kyiv, he said there was “zero trust between the two sides” and no “possibility for direct talks” between Moscow and Kyiv.
Melnyk said the US could increase its pressure on the Ukrainian government, but noted: “If there are no prospects or interest on the Russian side except capitulation of Ukraine, what is the reason for Ukraine to engage in such negotiations?”
Maximalist demands
The focus on the Black Sea is a much narrower one than a broad 30-day ceasefire agreement that the US proposed to Russia in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
Last week, after separate phone calls with US President Donald Trump, both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to a 30-day limited ceasefire, pledging not to attack energy infrastructure in each other’s territories.
But both sides have accused the other of carrying out attacks on those specific energy targets in recent days.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was still abiding by the moratorium that Putin had promised Trump, despite Kyiv continuing to strike Russian energy facilities.
Ukraine, which said it would only agree to the pause if a formal document was signed, has accused Moscow of flouting its own moratorium.
Nevertheless, Trump has expressed broad satisfaction over the way talks have been going and has been complimentary about Putin’s engagement in the process so far, saying on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the conflict were “somewhat under control”.
But there is scepticism among major European powers over whether Putin is ready to make meaningful concessions or will stick to what they see as his maximalist demands.
Putin says he is ready to discuss peace but that Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Continued attacks
Monday’s talks came after Russia launched its third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv, wounding one person and damaging houses in the region around the Ukrainian capital.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia must stop its strikes instead of “making hollow statements about peace” in the wake of a Russian missile attack on the northeastern city Sumy in a “residential neighbourhood”.
The attack injured at least 74 people, including 13 children, damaging a school and a hospital, according to the regional governor.
“Any diplomacy with Moscow must be backed up by firepower, sanctions and pressure”, Sybiha said on X.
Russia, for its part, said it had downed 227 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours, as firefighters in its southern Krasnodar region battled for a fifth day to put out a blaze at an oil depot struck in a Ukrainian drone attack last week.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Monday that Ukraine conducted two drone strikes on the Valuika gas distribution station in the Belgorod region on Saturday.
Additionally, it said Ukrainian forces had attempted to attack the Glebovskoye gas condensate field in Crimea on Sunday, but that Russian air defences had repelled the assault.
