US and Russian officials began talks in Saudi Arabia today aimed at making progress on a broader ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, with Washington seeking to reach an agreement to stop attacks on vessels in the Black Sea.
The talks today follow discussions between the US and Ukraine yesterday, as US President Donald Trump stepped up his push to end the three-year conflict. Last week, Trump spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reuters has published some of the main issues on which Russia, the United States and Ukraine are negotiating:
Ending attacks on energy infrastructure
Last week, Putin and Trump agreed that "the movement towards peace will begin" with a 30-day pause in attacks on Russian and Ukrainian energy facilities, the White House said.
However, this narrowly defined truce was quickly called into question, as Moscow said Ukraine had hit an oil depot in southern Russia, while Kiev said Russia had hit hospitals and homes, as well as cut off power to some railway lines.
Zelensky said Kiev would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to a partial ceasefire. This list could include not only energy infrastructure, but also rail and port infrastructure, he said.
Stopping strikes on energy infrastructure could be more beneficial to Moscow than to Kiev, given that it would prevent Ukraine from launching long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities - a key way the Ukrainians inflict damage on their enemy.
Nuclear power plants
A U.S. statement said Trump had hinted in his call with Zelensky that the U.S. could help manage and possibly acquire Ukraine's nuclear power plants and energy infrastructure.
Zelensky said he and Trump had discussed the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of causing a disaster at the plant.
Zelensky said Kiev was ready to discuss US involvement in modernizing the plant if it were returned to Ukraine.
In the long term, Ukraine would benefit from regaining control of the facility, which produced 20% of all Ukrainian electricity before the war.
However, Zelensky warned that it would take two and a half years to put the power plant into operation due to the many technical challenges it faces. Industry sources say this will also require huge investments, Reuters notes.
Shipping in the Black Sea
According to the Kremlin, Putin has responded constructively to Trump's initiative to protect shipping in the Black Sea and they have agreed to start negotiations on the issue.
Turkey and the United Nations helped broker the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative - a deal concluded in July 2022 that allowed the safe export of nearly 30 million tons of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea despite the war.
Russia withdrew from the agreement after a year, complaining that its food and fertilizer exports were facing serious obstacles.
According to World Bank data from April 2024, despite the risks of shipping in the Black Sea, both Russia and Ukraine have transported grain to world markets without major problems.
Prisoner of War Exchange
Last week, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners of war each, and Russia handed over 22 seriously injured Ukrainian prisoners of war in a gesture of goodwill.
Zelensky described the exchange as one of the largest of its kind and said that the 22 Ukrainians were "seriously wounded soldiers and people Russia is pursuing for fabricated crimes".
NATO Membership
Putin has said he wants Ukraine to formally abandon its NATO membership ambitions.
Ukraine has set NATO membership as a goal in its constitution and says membership in the bloc would be the best form of security guarantee it could receive as part of a peace deal.
Last month, John Cole, Trump's deputy envoy for Ukraine, said the United States had not ruled out either potential NATO membership for Ukraine or a return to its pre-2014 borders.
Cole's statement contradicted comments made a day earlier by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump said he did not believe Russia would allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO. Trump accused his predecessor Joe Biden of pushing the idea, even though it was first supported by Republican President George W. Bush in 2008.
Ukraine's post-war security
With NATO membership not an immediate prospect, Ukraine is seeking a peace agreement that includes guarantees for its long-term security. Kiev's demand is at odds with what the Kremlin is insisting should be included in the agreement.
Kiev and its supporters in Europe agree that the key to the country's security is a strong Ukrainian military. Moscow has said that one of the conditions of the peace agreement is the reduction of Ukraine's armed forces.
Britain and France are developing a plan to create a deterrent force of foreign troops, ships and aircraft based in or around Ukraine after a peace agreement is signed. Details of how the force would operate and who would participate are unclear.
Some Russian officials have said they cannot accept such a peacekeeping force.
Western sanctions, elections
Putin has said he wants Western sanctions against Russia to be eased and presidential elections to be held in Ukraine.
Kiev has not held elections since 2019. since due to martial law, and Ukrainian authorities say holding elections during wartime would be practically impossible.
Ukrainian authorities also say they are a sovereign country and it is not Moscow’s business to dictate when elections should be held.
The United States announced sweeping sanctions against Russia under Biden. The measures were aimed at curbing oil and gas revenues, including a cap on Russian oil exports of $60 per barrel.
Sources say the Trump administration is exploring ways to ease the sanctions if Moscow agrees to end the war. But this month, Trump also outlined the prospect of imposing sanctions and tariffs on Russia that would hit the banking sector and exports until peace is achieved.
Territories under Russian control
Russia wants to control all four regions in eastern Ukraine that it claims as its own, plus the Crimean peninsula, which it seized and annexed in 2014.
The Russian daily Kommersant cited unnamed sources who attended a private event with Putin last week, in which he said he wanted the United States to formally recognize the four regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson - as part of Russia, along with Crimea.
Ukraine says it already recognizes that it cannot take back the occupied Ukrainian territory by force and that it will eventually have to return it diplomatically. Kiev says it will never recognize Russian sovereignty over Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian Mineral Resources
Kiev and Washington are discussing an agreement under which the United States would recoup some of the funds it has allocated as military aid to Ukraine by developing Ukrainian natural resources, particularly minerals used to produce electronics.
Efforts to sign the deal have failed since a disastrous White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky late last month. On March 21, Trump said that the rare earths deal would be signed very soon.
In addition to this deal, Ukraine’s gas infrastructure could be of interest to the White House. Ukraine has the world’s third-largest underground gas storage capacity. It could import liquefied natural gas from the United States, store it, and then transport it to European countries seeking alternatives to Russian natural gas.