While the talks took place at a luxury hotel in Riyadh, nearly 90 people including 17 children were wounded in a missile attack Monday on Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russian media meanwhile said two journalists and their driver were killed when their car was struck “in the zone of the special military operation”, using Moscow's term for its full-scale offensive in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian negotiating team was staying in Riyadh for another day to meet with US representatives, a source in the delegation told Suspilne news, with another source also telling AFP a second meeting was likely -- a sign that progress may have been made.
'Trump's proposal'
Officials are now studying a possible resumption of the Black Sea Initiative, an agreement that allowed millions of tonnes of grain and other food exports to be shipped from Ukraine's ports.
“This was President Trump’s proposal and President Putin agreed to it. It was with this mandate that our delegation travelled to Riyadh.”
Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who heads the Ukrainian team, said Sunday's talks with the United States were “productive and focused”.
“I think you’re going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries,“ he told Fox News.
'Only at the beginning'
“We are only at the beginning of this path,“ Peskov told Russian state TV on Sunday, adding: “There are difficult negotiations ahead.”
The traditional adversaries are now discussing the return of the Black Sea Initiative, which was originally brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in 2022.
A senior Ukrainian official previously told AFP that Kyiv would propose a broader ceasefire, covering attacks on energy facilities, infrastructure and naval strikes.
Before the missile strike on Sumy, both sides had launched fresh drone attacks on the eve of the negotiations.
Moscow headed into the Saudi talks after a rapprochement with Washington under Trump that boosted the Kremlin's confidence.
“We may disagree on some things but that does not mean we should deprive ourselves of mutual benefit,“ he added.
Questions remain over what shape such an initiative might take, but Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have voiced willingness to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine.
“If there is a deal, it’s a deal that has to be defended,“ Starmer’s spokesman said.
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