Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, but will not meet face to face

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday (March 24) to participate in ceasefire talks. However, the parties will not meet face to face, The Washington Post reported, quoted by FOCUS.

According to Yuri Ushakov, chief foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US-brokered negotiations will focus on a ceasefire in the Black Sea. In addition, Russia is expected to abandon its attacks on the energy sector. That is, it is a partial ceasefire. Moscow also made it clear that the talks in Saudi Arabia will concern grain shipments via the Black Sea, which were part of a previous agreement signed in the summer of 2022.

WP explains that negotiators from both sides will be in separate rooms, with mediators passing information back and forth.

“These will be close-quarters talks... sort of like shuttle diplomacy in a hotel,” Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg told ABC News.

The Russian delegation in Riyadh will be led by Senator Grigory Karasin, who oversees foreign affairs, and Sergei Beseda, a senior adviser to the director of the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service).

Ukraine will be represented by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Pavlo Palisa, said a senior Ukrainian official on condition of anonymity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said the delegation would also include energy experts and “people who have deep knowledge of port infrastructure“.

Among the American mediators will be Michael Anton, director of policy planning for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as aides to Kellogg and representatives of the office of National Security Adviser Mike Walz.