Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukrainian experts would be present at upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia involving the United States and Russia, but will not be in the same room as Russia, as a diplomatic push to end the war intensifies.
Russian and US experts are due to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea at talks on a possible peace settlement in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the Kremlin said.
"There will be technical teams present there," Zelenskiy said during a visit to Norway.
"I understand that the structure is the following: there will be a meeting of Ukraine and America and then some shuttle diplomacy, as our American colleagues said, America with Russia," he told a press conference with Norway's premier.
Zelenskiy said on Wednesday Kyiv would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to a partial ceasefire brokered by Washington. That list could include not only energy, but also rail and port infrastructure, he said.
Negotiators from Moscow and the US will meet Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser Sergei Ushakov told Russian news agencies.
US President Donald Trump and Zelenskiy agreed on Wednesday to work together to end Russia's war with Ukraine, in what the White House described as a "fantastic" one-hour phone call, their first conversation since their Oval Office shouting match that resulted in a short-term cutoff in US military aid and intelligence to Kyiv.
Trump said on Thursday the United States will sign a minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly and that his efforts to achieve a peace deal for the country were going "pretty well" after his talks this week with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Ukraine and the US said this month they had agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine's critical mineral resources, which Trump sees as a means to pay back the United States for its assistance to Kyiv.
