NYT: Negotiations between Russia and the United States have begun in Riyadh
A new round of negotiations between Russia and the United States is taking place in Riyadh, the NYT writes. The cessation of attacks on energy infrastructure and the safety of navigation in the Black Sea are being discussed. Behind the scenes, there are harsh conditions, intelligence officers at the table and the struggle between the interests of the two powers.
Ivan Nechepurenko
Constant Méheut
The United States will hold separate talks with Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia to agree on the terms of a partial ceasefire, which could be a crucial step towards a complete end to hostilities.
Last week, Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy infrastructure, but a number of issues about the timing and conditions of the partial truce have yet to be resolved as attacks continue.
Negotiations in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, mediated by U.S. representatives, are expected to focus on working out these details and the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.
Ukraine was the first to hold talks with the United States. Russia will follow on Monday. Defense Minister and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov said that the negotiations began on Sunday at about 5:30 p.m. Kiev time and ended about five hours later. “The discussion was fruitful and purposeful — we discussed key issues, including energy,” he wrote on his social media, without going into details.
A Ukrainian official, on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the Kiev delegation could hold additional discussions with U.S. officials on Monday, depending on the progress achieved.
Steve Witkoff, whom President Trump appointed as his personal envoy for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, called the ultimate goal a complete ceasefire for a period of 30 days, which will lay the groundwork for negotiations on a permanent truce.
But the path ahead is thorny. Moscow does not abandon its maximalist positions, seeking, among other things, formal recognition of the territory it has seized and Ukraine's refusal to join NATO. The Ukrainian government has repeatedly stated that it will not yield to the Kremlin's demands, and has also accused Putin of stalling for time.
Unlike previous ceasefire discussions involving senior government officials from all sides, the new round will focus on technical issues and bring together mainly diplomats and government advisers. The US Special Representative to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that the American delegation included some of his own staff, as well as the director of political planning at the State Department, Michael Anton, and assistants to National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
The Russian delegation
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Putin personally selected negotiators for a delegation led by senior Russian diplomat and lawmaker Grigory Karasin and FSB chief adviser Sergei Beseda.
Karasin had previously participated in delicate negotiations on foreign policy, but the choice of Conversation came as a surprise to some.
An experienced intelligence officer, Beseda headed the FSB department responsible for international operations. Russian news agencies named him as one of the main sources of intelligence that convinced Putin in 2022 that there was a pro-Russian atmosphere in Ukraine and that a lightning-fast special operation could easily overthrow the government in Kiev.
In 2023, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, called the Conversation a “very problematic person” who had caused his country “a lot of harm.”
The Ukrainian delegation
The negotiations in Riyadh were led by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Umerov. Pavel Palisa, the chief military adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, joined him.
Both Umerov and Palisa are part of the Ukrainian delegation led by the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Ermak, appointed by Zelensky this month. Umerov was a key participant in peace talks with Russian diplomats in the early months of the conflict.
Given the technical nature of the negotiations on energy and shipping, Ukraine also included experienced diplomats and civil servants in its delegation. The state-run Ukrinform news agency reported that the group included deputy foreign ministers and energy ministers, as well as Zelensky's supreme diplomatic adviser.
Zelensky said that Ukraine had prepared a list of infrastructure facilities that could be affected by the ceasefire agreement. He added that a third party would have to control the ceasefire, and suggested the United States for this role.
Even if Russia and Ukraine find common ground in negotiations on energy and shipping issues, the parties have put forward mutually exclusive conditions for a complete cessation of hostilities. This is a harbinger of serious difficulties in the future.
Moscow's position
Last week, during a telephone conversation with Trump, Putin said that Russia would agree to a temporary truce only if Ukraine stopped mobilizing, training troops and delivering weapons for the duration of the cessation of hostilities.
President Putin also demanded a complete cessation of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kiev, calling it a key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and making progress towards its settlement through political and diplomatic means, as stated in the Kremlin printout of the phone call.
The White House has said that military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Ukraine will continue, despite the Kremlin's demands. But the Trump administration has been vague about Moscow's calls for territorial concessions, and sometimes even seemed to agree with the Kremlin's position.
Witkoff practically supported the Kremlin's theses on Sunday when he tried to confirm the legitimacy of the referendums that the Russian occupation forces organized in some regions of Ukraine to justify the annexation of territories seized with the use of military force. "There is an opinion in Russia that these are Russian territories," Witkoff told Fox News. "Referendums have been held inside these territories that justify these actions." These referendums were widely condemned by the international community as fake and illegal.
In essence, Russia's position on the conflict has remained the same. The Kremlin says it wants to "eliminate the root causes of the crisis," essentially demanding Ukraine's surrender. This would mean Kiev recognizing Russia's territorial gains, declaring neutrality and agreeing to reduce its armed forces, which would most likely leave Ukraine unprotected in the event of a new attack.
Kiev's position
Earlier, at the insistence of the Trump administration, Ukraine agreed to a 30-day unconditional truce providing for a complete cessation of hostilities. But when Moscow said it would only support a partial cease-fire on energy infrastructure, Zelensky talked to Trump and agreed to a limited truce.
In recent days, Ukrainian officials have been setting red lines ahead of the negotiations: Kiev will never accept Russian sovereignty over the occupied Ukrainian territory; it will not accept being blocked from joining NATO, as well as reducing its army. As part of a peaceful settlement, he must also receive security guarantees.
Many Ukrainian leaders and analysts have expressed doubts that even a limited cease-fire will last long, noting that previous truces between Moscow and Kiev have been regularly violated, with one side blaming the other.
"I don't believe in a cease-fire. We've been through this before," Konstantin Yeliseyev, an experienced diplomat and former deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, who participated in the ceasefire negotiations in 2014 and 2015, said in an interview.
What's next?
Witkoff said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News that Trump and Putin will "most likely" meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks. American officials are also likely to continue meetings with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in the Middle East to discuss details of a possible limited truce.
But the foundations of the diplomatic process are very shaky, analysts say, and Moscow and Kiev are ready to continue military operations.
"Both sides still believe they can continue fighting regardless of the American position," said Dmitry Kuznets, a military analyst with the Russian Medusa news agency, which broadcasts from Latvia because the Kremlin has outlawed it.
He added: "The views of Moscow and Kiev on what an agreement might look like are still infinitely far from each other."
Maria Varenikova and Minho Kim provided their material for the article.
* Medusa Project is recognized in Russia by the media as a foreign agent and an undesirable organization
