Moscow: Further contacts between US and Russian officials on achieving a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine are likely to follow a round of talks Monday, a Kremlin official said on Tuesday, but no concrete plans have yet been made.
The American and Russian negotiators held talks throughout the day on Monday in the capital of Saudi Arabia to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine, a day after US officials held separate talks in Riyadh with a team from Kyiv.
It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week — with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles and disagreement over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the talks in Riyadh “has been reported in the capitals” and was currently being “analyzed” by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release any details of what was discussed to the public.
“We’re talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details,” Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organised if the need arises.
“There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment,” Peskov said. He added that that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the US and Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like, even after Trump spoke with the leaders of both countries to advance a pause.
While the White House said a partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure”, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would also like to see sites like railways and ports protected.
Senior Russian lawmaker Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-US talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was “very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive”.
“We were at it all day from morning until late at night,” Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Karasin said Moscow’s and Washington’s positions don’t always align, but that the two parties will continue to look for ways to cooperate, as there is now an understanding that cooperation is necessary to resolve the conflict.
The lawmaker added that talks between expert groups from Russia and the US could continue.
The number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.
The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine.
Two people were injured after drone debris fell on a warehouse in the Poltava region, administration head Volodymyr Kohut wrote on Telegram Tuesday, while two people were injured outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to the head of the region.
One man suffered injuries after a Russian drone attack in Kherson, city administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on Telegram Tuesday.
