Peace talks with US in Saudi Arabia began ‘in a constructive way’, Ukrainian official says

Talks held in Saudi Arabia between the US and Ukraine on ending Russia’s war “began in a very constructive way,” head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office Andriy Yermak said on Tuesday.

Yermak is part of a Ukrainian delegation meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff in Jeddah for crunch talks on how to end Moscow’s all-out war against Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

“We’re working towards a just and lasting peace,” Yermak stated on Telegram.

Ahead of the meeting, Rubio told reporters that the US would be listening to Ukrainian officials about what conditions they considered necessary for peace rather than proposing measures themselves.

“I think we want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are,” Rubio told reporters.

He also said the “only way” to prevent suffering was to talk about concessions, implying that the US would be asking for Kyiv to reconsider changes to its peace plan, which involves Russian troops withdrawing from all of its territory.

Two Ukrainian officials told AP on Monday they would propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea region, long-range missile strikes, and the release of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia.

Also expected to be on the table is an agreement between Kyiv and Washington on Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals, giving Washington access to mineral riches in exchange for investment.

Rubio said that rare earth and critical minerals deals could be signed but that it was not a precondition for the US to move ahead with discussions with either Ukraine or Russia.

It might make more sense to negotiate the precise details of the agreement, Rubio said.

Previous talks on the rare earths deal fell apart in an unprecedented spat in the Oval Office following Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House in late February.

After the meeting, Trump declared that Zelenskyy wasn’t “ready” for peace. The Ukrainian leader insisted that any deal should contain real security guarantees that could prevent Russia from continuing the war or reinvading Ukraine.

The US subsequently paused military support and some intelligence sharing between Washington and Kyiv, a break that members of the Trump administration have suggested could be lifted following positive discussions in Jeddah.

For its part, the Kremlin has stood by its long-standing position that it would cease hostilities on the condition that Ukraine dropped its bid to join the NATO military alliance and recognised regions that Moscow partially occupied as Russian.