Ukraine will try to convince the United States to resume military assistance and intelligence sharing during bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia, writes the Financial Times, citing officials. According to the interlocutors of the newspaper, Kiev is going to offer a "partial ceasefire" with Russia, it concerns drone strikes and long-range missiles, as well as military operations in the Black Sea.
Ukraine expects that the course of negotiations will lead to Washington canceling its decision to suspend the exchange of intelligence and arms supplies, the newspaper writes.
In the short term, Kiev will seek to improve relations with Washington, the Ukrainian official said. According to two European officials, the Ukrainian side views progress in the ceasefire negotiations "as a quid pro quo" in exchange for the resumption of military and intelligence assistance.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will go to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) on March 10-12 for talks with the Ukrainian side, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said. That the American and Ukrainian delegations will hold talks in Saudi Arabia, Fox News journalist Jackie Heinrich and Axios reported this week. Later, the kingdom's Foreign Ministry clarified that the meeting would be held in Jeddah.
This is the first official meeting of representatives of the United States and Ukraine after the altercation of Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky in the White House. Kyiv will be represented by the head of the office of the Ukrainian leader Andriy Yermak, his deputy Pavlo Palisa, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Washington will be represented by Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Trump's envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
After an altercation in the White House, the American leader called his Ukrainian colleague unwilling to bring peace closer, and an apology was demanded from him. The White House has decided to suspend military assistance and intelligence sharing. Zelensky then expressed regret that the meeting in the Oval Office "did not go as expected." He assured that Kiev is ready to work on ending the conflict, RBC reminds.