Russia-Ukraine war: U.S. holds separate talks on partial ceasefire

U.S. negotiators worked to hammer out details of a proposed partial ceasefire in Ukraine on Monday, meeting with representatives from Russia a day after holding separate talks with the Ukrainian team. Each side has accused the other of undermining efforts to reach a pause in the 3-year-old war.
Kyiv and Moscow agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, but the parties have offered different views of what targets would be off-limits to attack.
While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would also like to see railways and ports protected.
Talks Monday are expected to address some of those differences, as well as a potential pause in attacks in the Black Sea to ensure the safety of commercial shipping.U.S. and Russian representatives began meeting in the morning in the Saudi capital, Russia’s state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies reported. The U.S. and Ukrainian teams met on Sunday in Riyadh, and more contacts were expected, though it was not clear when.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated on Friday that the Russian military has complied with President Vladimir Putin’s directive to halt attacks on energy facilities for thirty days. Peskov accused Ukraine of derailing the partial ceasefire with an attack on a gas metering station in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the station, a claim Peskov called “absurd.”
Meanwhile, Russian troops launched a new barrage of drones, including decoys, into Ukraine overnight into Monday, according to Ukraine’s air force, causing some damage and injuries.
Before the latest attack, Zelenskyy said in a televised statement Sunday evening that “since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this.”