Officials from the United States and Ukraine began talks in Saudi Arabia on March 23 over plans to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure, according to Ukraine’s defense minister. The talks are part of larger negotiations over a potential partial cease-fire to end three years of war between Russia and Ukraine.
The meeting is being held one day before U.S. and Russian delegations are scheduled to meet for talks on a 30-day truce, which would see both sides stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure. Russia stated that its March 24 meeting with U.S. officials will be focused on finding ways to preserve the safety of shipping in the Black Sea.
Both meetings are occurring after a series of discussions in Saudi Arabia, first between Russia and the United States and then later between Ukraine and the United States, which saw Kyiv accept a 30-day cease-fire proposal.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on March 23 that he was optimistic about the possibility of ending what has become Europe’s deadliest military conflict since World War II.
“I feel that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] wants peace,” Witkoff said.
“I think that you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea cease-fire on ships between both countries. And from that, you'll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting cease-fire.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is leading the nation’s delegation at the March 23 meeting, which allows Ukraine to act in a “very quick and very substantive” way, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, Ukrainian officials have said that they see the meeting in Riyadh as simply technical.
On March 21, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said the Ukrainian and U.S. delegations were set to “clarify the modalities, the nuances of possible different ceasefire regimes, how to monitor them, how to control them, in general, what is included in their scope.”
Putin on March 18 agreed to President Donald Trump’s plan for Russia and Ukraine to cease attacks on each other’s energy infrastructures for 30 days, with Putin ordering the Russian military to stop them.
Both Russia and Ukraine have reported continued attacks from the other side, and Russia is continuing to slowly advance into eastern Ukraine.
On March 22, Trump said plans to end the war between Russia and Ukraine were “somewhat under control.”
Ukrainian officials said on March 23 that a large-scale overnight Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed at least three, including a 5-year-old child. The strikes set high-rise apartment buildings on fire and damaged areas of the capital.
Also on March 23, Russian authorities said their air defenses had shot down 59 Ukrainian drones targeting the nation’s southwestern areas. They say the attacks killed at least one person in Rostov.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, an escalation of the Russo–Ukrainian War that began in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea.
On March 20, The UK Ministry of Defense estimated that somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 Russian soldiers have perished since early 2022.
Zelenskyy said in December 2024 that roughly 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since that time.
