Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a press conference in Oslo, Norway, on March 20. File Photo by Ole Berg-Rusten/EPA-EFE
March 23 (UPI) — The United States has begun separate meetings with delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Saudi Arabia as the administration of President Donald Trump pushes to broker a peace agreement between the two countries.
Talks between the United States and Ukraine were confirmed by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is leading his country’s delegation, in a post on social media. The delegation also includes presidential military adviser Pavlo Palisa, foreign policy adviser Ihor Zhovkva and several military officers.
“We’ve started the meeting with the American team in Riyadh,” Umerov said. He said the day’s agenda was about protecting energy facilities and critical infrastructure after Kyiv accused Moscow of violating its promise to halt attacks on energy infrastructure.
“Today, we’re working through a number of complex technical issues,” he added. “Our delegation includes energy experts as well as military representatives from the naval and air components.”
Another Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously to The New York Times, said talks between the Ukrainians and the Americans might continue Monday if progress was felt Sunday. U.S.-Russia talks around the war will also take place Monda in Riyadh.
The talks came even as Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East who also has a hand in negotiating with Russia, heralded Russian President Vladimir Putin as “super smart.”
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy,” Witkoff said on Tucker Carlson‘s podcast Friday. He also echoed Russian messaging around the war, including that the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine want to join Russia.
The talks in Riyadh mark the second round of U.S.-Ukrainian discussions after a first round took place in Jeddah on March 11. And they come weeks after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky at the White House.
Meanwhile, the Russian delegation will include career diplomat Grigory Karasin and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service spy agency, Financial Times reported.
Trump, speaking in an Air Force One interview to Clay Travis of the sports website Outkick, said there was nobody in the world who could stop Putin besides him.
“I think I’m going to be able to stop him,” Trump said. “We’ve had some very rational discussions, and I just want to see the people stop getting killed. They’re losing 2,500 young kids a week, and they’re Russian and they’re Ukrainian.”
