Moscow, March 11 (IANS) Russia on Tuesday said that it expects that the United States will brief Moscow on the outcome of the US-Ukraine meeting in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah.
“A US-Ukraine meeting will take place in Jeddah today. The US, which is in search of ways to reach a peaceful solution, will keep us updated somehow,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Tass.
Ukrainian and US delegates started their talks in Jeddah on Tuesday that will likely have a major impact on Washington’s future support for Kyiv and any effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “The meeting with the US team started very constructively; we are working towards a just and lasting peace,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak.
The Ukrainian delegation is said to include Yermak, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, and Zelensky’s Deputy Chief of Staff Pavlo Palisa. The US delegation is, meanwhile, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
The expectations are high as the meeting presents a chance to mend the relations between Kyiv and Washington after a heated exchange between Ukrainian President Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office in February, Ukrainian media outlet, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Addressing the media on Monday ahead of his meeting with the Ukrainian delegates Marco Rubio stated, “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form.”
“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014. So the only solution to this war is diplomacy and getting them to a table where that’s possible. I think the French and the British have been very supportive along the way over the last week as well and very helpful, so we are hopeful we will have good meetings tomorrow,” Rubio added further.
Meanwhile, Ukraine prepared a large-scale attack of its drones on Russia ahead of the Tuesday meeting of the US and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia. According to the Defence Ministry, 337 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian regions in the early hours on Tuesday, including 91 in the Moscow Region. Slamming the Ukrainian attack on Russia, a Russian expert stated that the Ukrainian side believes that its militaristic stance “will help” today at the negotiations in Jeddah, TASS reported.
–IANS
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