Russia hopes for ‘progress’ at Saudi talks: negotiator

Moscow is hoping to achieve “some progress” at talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holds a meeting of his military cabinet in Kharkiv. Picture: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP

Moscow is hoping to achieve “some progress” at talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a Russian negotiator told state media some 48 hours before the US meets delegations from both Ukraine and Russia in a bid to halt the three-year conflict.

Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukraine proposal of a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, proposing instead just to halt aerial strikes on energy facilities.

Despite that offer, both sides have continued to launch aerial attacks in the run-up to the talks.

A Russian strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia late on Friday night killed a family of three, triggering anger among Ukrainian officials.

US negotiators will meet separately with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on Monday, in what US envoy Keith Kellogg described as “shuttle diplomacy” between hotel rooms.

Despite the flurry of diplomacy and a push from US President Donald Trump, a breakthrough has so far proved elusive.

“We hope to achieve at least some progress,” Russian senator Grigory Karasin, who will lead the Russian delegation, told the Zvezda TV channel, without specifying on what issue. He said he and fellow negotiator Sergey Beseda, an FSB adviser, would take a “combative and constructive” mood into the talks.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP a day earlier that Kyiv hopes to secure agreement “at least” on a partial ceasefire covering attacks on energy, infrastructure and at sea. Kyiv is sending its Defence Minister to the negotiations.

“We are going with the mood to fight for the solution of at least one issue,” Senator Karasin told Zvezda, which is owned by Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Russia’s choice of negotiators for the talks has raised questions. Both are from outside traditional diplomatic decision-making institutions such as the Kremlin, Foreign Ministry or Defence Ministry.

Senator Karasin is a career diplomat who now sits in Russia’s upper house of parliament, while Mr Beseda is a long-time FSB officer and now an adviser to the security service’s director.

Ukraine has accused Russia of not genuinely seeking peace, and condemned its ongoing attacks, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying recently he had ordered his army to stop targeting Ukrainian energy sites.

AFP