In Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and U.S. seek understanding on ceasefire

Brussels – Ukraine and the United States are at it again. Delegations from Kyiv and Washington are meeting these hours in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to agree a roadmap leading to the end of the war with Russia. On the table is Volodymyr Zelensky‘s proposal for a truce in the air and at sea, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has hinted that the former Soviet republic will have to cede territories to Moscow.

In the aftermath of the largest drone attack (over ninety) ever carried out in three years by the Kyiv military that left at least three dead in the Federation’s capital, the negotiating teams of Ukraine and the United States are meeting today (March 11) in Jeddah to try to unfreeze the complex ceasefire game and put a pause on the conflict that has been holding the world in suspense for three years. According to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak, the climate of the talks is “very constructive.”

This is the first direct contact between the two countries, theoretically allies, since the heavy diplomatic tensions of recent weeks culminated in the ambush by Donald Trump and his deputy J.D. Vance to Volodymyr Zelensky last February 28 in the Oval Office. In the hopes of the Ukrainian leader, today’s talks (which he will not take part in directly, although he met yesterday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman) are meant to revive relations with Washington and achieve “practical results.”

The U.S. president, who said it would be “easier” to negotiate with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin than with Zelensky (the latter would not be “ready” for peace, the tycoon had said in recent days), recently suspended military aid to Kyiv—including the sharing of intelligence information—in an attempt to put pressure on the Ukrainians to force them to sit at the negotiating table.

At the table in Jeddah, the president of the aggrieved country arrives with a proposal for a one-month truce in air and sea fighting. Zelensky’s goal is twofold: to test Russia’s good faith in moving toward peace negotiations and, at the same time, to demonstrate its readiness to the White House tenant, with whom European allies had urged him to mend fences. “Ukraine’s position in these talks will be fully constructive,” he wrote on X on the eve of the meeting.

For his part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—who leads the star-studded delegation, which also includes National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff—said that “we need to understand the Ukrainian position and have a general idea of what concessions they would be willing to make, because you will not get a ceasefire and an end to this war if both sides do not make concessions.”

The White House sees the cession of some of the occupied Ukrainian territories to the invader as inevitable, but it is not yet clear which ones. “The Russians cannot conquer all of Ukraine, and it will be very difficult for Ukraine, in a reasonable period, to force the Russians back to where they were in 2014,” the U.S. diplomatic chief noted. Currently, Moscow controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory (including the Crimean peninsula, unilaterally annexed 11 years ago).

The hope, shared by both Kyiv and Washington, is to conclude once and for all the signing of the pact on critical raw materials abandoned after the catastrophic three-way talks in the Oval Office. The U.S. administration sees it as reimbursement for aid sent to the former Soviet republic in three years of war, while for Zelensky it is the last chance to keep Uncle Sam on his side. Trump had earlier described the agreement as “the best security guarantee” for Kyiv, even though it does not provide for any U.S. troop deployment on Ukrainian soil.

Today’s is the second high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia to reach a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. The previous had been convened in Riyadh last Feb. 18, and had been the first face-to-face between U.S. and Russian officials since 2022, who in the Saudi capital agreed to restore diplomatic relations frozen during the presidency of Joe Biden.