Day-long talks in Saudi Arabia between the U.S. and Russia over a ceasefire in the Ukraine war were “difficult” but “constructive,” a Russian official said.
Grigory Karasin, a member of the Russian delegation and head of the international committee of the Federation Council, gave the update to state news agency RIA.
“A very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive conversation took place with the U.S. expert team. They sat all day from morning until late at night,” Karasin said on Tuesday morning.
The delegations were discussing the technical details of a ceasefire on energy infrastructure agreed by Moscow and Kyiv and a potential maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
They met on Monday at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh for 12 hours. A joint statement on the meeting is expected on Tuesday, RIA reported.
The Trump Administration is trying to broker partial ceasefires that it hopes will lead to a full peace deal that ends the Russia-Ukraine war.
As the Russians return home, the U.S. will now hold more talks in Saudi Arabia with Ukraine. Delegations from Kyiv and Washington had also met on Sunday in Riyadh.
“What we need is movement toward real peace—toward guaranteed security,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted to X on Monday evening.
“And this is something we all need—in Ukraine, in Europe, in America, and across the world—everyone who wants stability in international relations.
“Russia remains the only actor dragging this war out, jeering at both our people and the global community. To push Russia toward peace, we need strong moves and strong actions.
“We are ready to support every strong initiative that can make diplomacy more effective—and that means applying pressure to force Russia to want to end this war. That means sanctions. That means support for Ukraine. That means international coordination.”
This is a developing story and more information will be published shortly.