Talks between Russian and American delegations to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine will take place in the coming days in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on March 19 on X.
Waltz said he discussed Trump's efforts to stop the fighting in Ukraine with Yuri Ushakov, a close adviser to Putin.
"We agreed our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia," Waltz wrote on X.
Waltz's statement comes after a March 18 call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the call, Putin and Trump agreed that the war needs to end with "a lasting peace," and the first steps towards this will be an energy and infrastructure ceasefire and technical negotiations on implementing a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
After the Trump-Putin call, the Kremlin agreed to a 30-day pause on energy infrastructure strikes. Despite this commitment, Russia launched a large-scale assault on Ukraine's infrastructure overnight on March 19.
A U.S. delegation earlier met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and top presidential aide Yuri Ushakov in Riyadh on Feb. 18 to initiate talks on ending the war in the first official meeting between the two sides since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine was excluded from the discussions.
No concrete decisions were announced following the U.S.-Russia talks, but Ukraine's exclusion from the meeting sparked alarm in Kyiv and Europe.
On March 11, U.S.-Ukraine talks took place in Jeddah, in which the two sides sought a common path toward a peace deal after weeks of tense relations.
After the negotiations with Washington, Ukraine's Presidential Office announced that it was ready to accept a U.S. proposal for a temporary 30-day ceasefire if Russia also did the same.
Kateryna Hodunova
(Updated: )
