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US to Press Ukraine for Truce Commitments at Saudi Meeting
Alberto Nardelli and Natalia Drozdiak
5 min read
(Bloomberg) -- US and Ukrainian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss the timing and scope of an initial ceasefire with Russia, with multiple points of tension still to be ironed out.
The planned talks in Jeddah will follow several days of intense pressure by President Donald Trump’s administration on the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, including the suspension of military aid and intelligence assistance. Those moves were designed to persuade him to agree to a partial truce that would then enable negotiations to halt the three-year Russian invasion.
Trump said on Air Force One his administration has largely lifted the freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine — a move described by international officials as particularly damaging — as he looks to push both Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table. “We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done,” he told reporters.
An economic agreement between Washington and Kyiv on Ukraine’s natural resources has been tied to securing a truce commitment, Bloomberg News has reported. Trump said Sunday he believes Zelenskiy will come back and sign the resources deal, which has been on hold since the acrimonious White House meeting between the two leaders on Feb. 28.
“I think it’ll happen,” the US president told Fox News.
Steve Witkoff, the US president’s Middle East envoy, on Monday echoed that optimism, saying he “certainly” hoped the deal would be completed this week.
“We’re going over there with an expectation that we’re going to make substantial progress,” he said on Fox News.
Zelenskiy said last week he was open to a ceasefire if Russia agreed to halt airstrikes and naval operations. A prisoner exchange should follow as a way of establishing trust, the Ukrainian president told European Union leaders in Brussels. A meeting between Zelenskiy and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is scheduled for late Monday, with the Ukrainian team set to stay on in the kingdom for US talks.
Russia is willing to discuss a temporary truce in Ukraine provided there is progress toward a final peace settlement, according to people familiar with the matter in Moscow. Yet there’s been no public indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to compromise — or that the US is pushing him to do so.
Trump’s advisers are sketching out how they might ease the sanctions imposed on Russia because of the war, including a cap imposed on prices for its oil sales, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Trump administration’s comments on Ukraine have been “encouraging” and are “steps in the right direction,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a magazine interview, according to a transcript published Monday by the Foreign Ministry. Still, it’s too early to draw conclusions and “we have not even started the work to overcome the accumulated problems and contradictions in our relations with the Americans,” he said.
Russia isn’t planning US talks in Saudi Arabia this week, state-owned Tass reported Monday.
“I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don’t think they have a choice,” Trump told reporters at the White House on March 6. “I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way, a different way that only I know, they have no choice.”
He didn’t elaborate, though on Friday said he was “strongly considering” fresh banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia over its continued attacks on Ukraine. He didn’t mention those threats later in the day, and it wasn’t clear what new restrictions could be imposed given the broad penalties already in place.
First Step
A commitment toward a partial Russia-Ukraine truce, if agreed upon, would be seen as a first step toward negotiations over a more permanent settlement and could lead to the US lifting restrictions on Kyiv.
Discussions on US security guarantees that could be critical to ensuring the durability of any peace deal have been suspended for now, several officials said. The size and scope of Ukraine’s army will also be integral to that element of a truce, and that is likely to be another point of contention with Moscow.
Led by the UK and France, European leaders have been assembling their own proposal to provide Ukraine with security guarantees. European defense chiefs are set to meet in Paris this week to discuss how to forge ahead.
Officials in London and Paris have been clear that those guarantees would require a US backstop, but Trump has so far been non-committal and it remains unclear whether or not Washington would offer assurances, beyond those linked directly to the minerals deal.
Germany is nearing an agreement to unlock €3 billion ($3.2 billion) of military aid for Ukraine, Bloomberg reported at the weekend, almost doubling aid this year to €7 billion.
European officials believe that Putin’s ultimate goal of seizing Ukraine hasn’t changed and he can’t be trusted. A key European objective at this stage is to test Trump’s belief that Putin is serious about negotiating a realistic peace settlement.
Lavrov on Thursday rejected having western peacekeepers stationed in Ukraine. If Moscow sticks to that position in any negotiations, it should then become clear to Trump that it’s Putin who isn’t willing to compromise, the officials said.
--With assistance from Alex Wickham and Christine Burke.
(Updates with Witkoff comments in paragraphs 6-7.)
