A Ukrainian delegation set to meet with top U.S. diplomats in Saudi Arabia to end the three-year war with Russia will propose a ceasefire that includes a freeze on the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes, as well as the release of prisoners, two senior Ukrainian officials said Monday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about Tuesday’s meeting, said the Ukrainian delegation was ready to sign an agreement with the United States on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals during the talks, a deal that US President Donald Trump is eager to secure.
Officials discussed confidence-building measures before a meeting of the Ukrainian negotiating team with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah, without providing further details. Kiev is trying to repair the damage caused by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s February 28 visit to Washington, where he clashed with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office.
Military aid and intelligence information previously offered by the United States, which has supported Ukraine in the war, is at risk but has now been suspended as Washington presses for a peace deal. Rubio and Zelensky landed in Saudi Arabia within hours of each other on Monday but did not meet.
Zelensky met with the kingdom’s powerful crown prince on Monday evening. They had “a detailed discussion on the steps and conditions necessary to end the war and secure a reliable and lasting peace,” Zelensky said. “Saudi Arabia provides an important platform for diplomacy and we appreciate it,” Zelensky said online.
Rubio also met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He thanked him for hosting the talks and also discussed Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have threatened to resume their offensive in the Red Sea.
Speaking to reporters on his plane before arriving, Rubio said he and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would review Ukraine’s response to Saudi Arabia. If Ukraine and the US reach an agreement acceptable to Trump, it could accelerate his administration’s peace negotiation efforts.
“We want to know if they are willing to enter into some kind of peace talks and common frameworks that they can consider, recognizing that this has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians. They have suffered a lot and their people have suffered a lot,” Rubio said, “and it’s hard to talk about concessions as a result of something like this, but it’s the only way to end it and prevent further suffering.”
“I’m not going to make any assumptions about what they should do or what they need to do. I think we want to hear how far they’re willing to go and compare that to what the Russians want and see how far we really are,” he said.
Zelensky said his team to meet Rubio will include his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha and Defense Minister Rustam Umarov. Rubio will lead the American team. The rest of Europe is skeptical about the talks as Washington has sidelined them.
The European Union (EU) agreed last week to boost the continent’s security and free up hundreds of billions of euros for security in response to the Trump administration’s changes in the situation in Ukraine. White House special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that the suspension of US intelligence sharing with Ukraine did not limit defense intelligence sharing.
“We will not stop intelligence information that the Ukrainians need… for any defensive purpose,” he said. A US official said that a US spy partnership that could be used for offensive purposes by the Ukrainian military has been suspended. The official indicated that progress could be made towards re-establishing the spy partnership with Ukraine during the Saudi talks.
