Ukraine to present peace plan in talks with US in Saudi Arabia

The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.

Yermak told reporters just before the start of Tuesday’s meeting that Ukraine is ready “to do everything to achieve peace.”

When asked if Ukraine is seeking security guarantees, Yermak said ‘yes’ and that Ukraine wants to ensure that Russia never repeats its aggression.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz led the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.

He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.

“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.

“We're not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”

Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.

Mineral deal?

Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine's raw materials.

More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium and titanium.

But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine's mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.

“There's still more details to work out, and at this point, we're probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time," he told reporters.

“I wouldn't prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. ... It's an important topic, but it's not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.

Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.

He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.

This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.