The Russian And US Expert Teams Will Meet In Riyadh To Discuss The Ukraine Conflict

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz (left) and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio while attending a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah March 11, 2025. (Wikimedia Commons/Official State Department/Freddie Everett)

The United States and Russia delegations will meet again in Saudi Arabia to discuss steps to end the war in Ukraine which has been going on since 2022.

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said he and Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov agreed during a telephone conversation that an expert team from the two countries would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to discuss a partial ceasefire in Ukraine.

"I am speaking today with my Russian partner Yury Ushakov about President (US) Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. We agree that our technical team will meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire that President Trump has obtained from Russia," Waltz wrote on his X account, quoted from TASS March 20.

Waltz said, after a phone call with his Russian counterpart, he would soon speak with Ukrainian officials.

"Going back and forth diplomacy is tough, it's tough, but we're going back and forth at every level to encourage both sides to put a ceasefire, pushing both sides towards the end of this war," Waltz told reporters referring to Washington's efforts to push for dialogue with Moscow and Kyiv.

Waltz also told reporters at the White House that on that occasion the two of them did not discuss the issue of Western military figures to Ukraine.

Diplomacy of fast movement stems from US President Donald Trump's phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, bringing cool winds amid tensions over relations between the two countries.

After that, the two countries held two rounds of high-level delegation meetings, the first in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 18, the second meeting in Istanbul, Turkey on February 27.

"We all see how fast the world is changing, the situation in the world. In this case, I would like to note that the first contact with the new US administration inspired certain expectations," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a Federal Security Service meeting late last month.

"There is a shared dedication to working to restore relations between countries and gradually resolve a large number of systemic and strategic problems accumulated in the global architecture," he continued.

On March 18, President Putin and President Trump discussed the situation in Ukraine, conditions to avoid escalation and a number of international issues by phone call.

According to the Kremlin's press service, President Putin agreed with the US leader's proposal for parties to conflict in Ukraine to refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days.

According to the White House, both sides also agreed to start technical talks on the introduction of a ceasefire in the Black Sea.

The main requirement to resolve the conflict is "the complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv," the Kremlin said.