U.S. and Russian negotiators on Monday (March 24, 2025) sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine, hours after a spherical of negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian delegations, Russian information reviews stated.
The State Tass and RIA-Novosti information companies stated the negotiations had begun in the capital Riyadh. The assembly is anticipated to be adopted by one other contact between U.S. and Ukrainian groups.
The separate conferences are set to debate particulars of a pause in long-range assaults from each Russia and Ukraine in opposition to power services and civilian infrastructure, in addition to a halt on assaults in the Black Sea to make sure protected industrial delivery.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in precept Wednesday to a restricted ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the international locations’ leaders, however the events have supplied completely different views of what targets could be off-limits to assault and accused one another of undermining efforts to achieve a pause.
While the White House stated “energy and infrastructure” could be coated, the Kremlin declared that the settlement referred extra narrowly to “energy infrastructure”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated he would additionally like railways and ports to be protected.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasised on Friday that the settlement reached between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin referred solely to power services, including that the Russian navy is fulfilling Mr. Putin’s order to halt such assaults for 30 days.
Mr. Peskov accused Ukraine of derailing the partial ceasefire with an assault on a fuel metering station in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk area. Ukraine’s navy General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian navy for shelling the Sudzha fuel metering station, a declare Mr. Peskov rejected as “absurd”.
As negotiations on a partial ceasefire progressed, Russia launched a barrage of drones throughout Ukraine in a single day on Saturday that killed a minimum of seven individuals, together with a father and his 5-year-old daughter in the capital Kyiv.
In a televised assertion Sunday night, Mr. Zelenskyy stated that “since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this”.
“There must be more pressure on Russia to stop this terror,” Mr. Zelenskyy stated, including that it “depends on all our partners — the U.S., Europe, and others around the world”.
Mr. Zelenskyy has emphasised that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Mr. Trump has proposed, whereas Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a whole ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms provides to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s navy mobilization — calls for rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday”, Mr. Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff stated he anticipated “some real progress” on the talks in Saudi Arabia, “particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries, and from that you’ll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire”.
As for Sunday talks in Riyadh between Ukrainian and U.S. representatives, Mr. Zelenskyy stated they’d been carried out on a extra “technical level” in comparison with comparable conferences final week, this time involving representatives from Ukraine’s navy, Energy Ministry and diplomatic corps.
“Our team is working in a fully constructive manner, and the discussion is quite useful. The work of the delegations continues,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “But no matter what we’re discussing with our partners right now, Mr. Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes, because the one who brought this war must be the one to take it back.”
Ukrainian railways come beneath cyber assault
Ukrainian state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia got here beneath a “massive targeted cyber attack” on its on-line providers on Sunday, the corporate wrote on Telegram, including that the restoration of its programs was ongoing as of Monday morning.
The firm stated the cyberattack didn’t have an effect on prepare actions or schedules, however that the web buy of tickets was at present unavailable.
“The railway continues to operate despite physical attacks on the infrastructure, and even the most vile cyber attacks cannot stop it,” the corporate wrote.
Russian troops fired 99 strike and decoy drones into Ukraine in a single day Sunday, in line with Ukraine’s air pressure, of which 57 have been shot down and 36 have been misplaced from radar. The remaining drones precipitated harm in a minimum of 5 areas of Ukraine, the air pressure report says.
In the Kyiv area, one man suffered accidents in a single day as a Russian drone struck a residential space.
“The man has superficial shrapnel wounds to his abdomen, chest, thighs, and head,” the appearing head of the Kyiv area, Mykola Kalashnyk, wrote on Telegram on Monday.
In the Kharkiv area, a Russian drone struck a residential constructing in the village of Velyka Babka, injuring a 25-year-old man and a pregnant girl. Both have been hospitalized, regional head Oleh Syniehubov stated on Telegram on Monday morning.
In Zaporizhzhia, Russian drones broken a number of homes of native residents in a single day with one aged girl struggling gentle accidents, regional head Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
Published – March 24, 2025 03:32 pm IST
