Kremlin Expects ‘Difficult Negotiations’ In Saudi Arabia Over Ukraine

The Kremlin on Sunday downplayed expectations of a speedy decision to the Ukraine battle, saying talks have been simply starting and that “troublesome negotiations” lay forward.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are to carry separate talks with US officers in Saudi Arabia over the subsequent 48 hours as President Donald Trump pushes for a speedy finish to greater than three years of preventing.

Regardless of each side proposing totally different plans for short-term ceasefires, assaults have continued unabated. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three civilians in a single day.

“We’re solely originally of this path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed Russian state TV on Sunday, forward of the talks in Saudi Arabia.

He stated there have been many excellent “questions” and “nuances” over how a possible ceasefire could be applied.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian name for a full and rapid 30-day pause, proposing as a substitute to halt assaults solely on vitality amenities.

“There are troublesome negotiations forward,” Peskov stated within the interview, printed on social media.

Initially scheduled to happen concurrently in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the talks on a partial truce may now occur one after the opposite.

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Ukrainian and US delegations would meet Sunday, with out giving additional particulars on what seemed to be a change in format.

Peskov stated Russia’s “major” focus in its talks with the US could be discussing a potential resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal that ensured protected navigation for Ukrainian agricultural exports within the Black Sea.

“On Monday we primarily intend to debate President Putin’s settlement to renew the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will probably be prepared to debate the nuances round this downside,” Peskov stated.

Moscow pulled out of the deal — brokered by Turkey and the United Nations — in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia’s personal exports of agricultural merchandise and fertilisers.

A senior Ukrainian official beforehand informed AFP that Kyiv would suggest a broader ceasefire, masking assaults on vitality amenities, infrastructure and naval strikes.

Each side launched contemporary drone assaults on the eve of the negotiations.

Ukrainian officers stated a Russian drone assault killed three civilians within the capital Kyiv, together with a five-year-old woman and her father.

An 11-month-old baby was amongst some 10 additionally wounded within the strikes on Kyiv, officers stated on social media.

AFP reporters within the capital noticed emergency employees treating the wounded within the early hours of Sunday in entrance of broken residential buildings, hit within the strike.

The Kyiv metropolis prosecutor’s workplace printed photographs exhibiting a multi-story constructing engulfed in flames.

Lethal strikes on the well-protected capital are rarer than elsewhere within the nation.

Ukraine’s air pressure stated Russia launched 147 drones on the nation within the newest barrage.

Zelensky urged his nation’s allies to place contemporary stress on Russia.

“New selections and new stress on Moscow are wanted to carry an finish to those strikes and this battle,” he posted on social media.

The pinnacle of Zelensky’s workplace, Andriy Yermak, stated on Telegram: “Russia shouldn’t be ceasing hearth. Putin desires to kill extra civilians. This have to be stopped.”

Russia stated it had repelled practically 60 Ukrainian drones in a single day and introduced one man killed within the southern Rostov area when his automobile caught hearth from falling particles.