Riyadh (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats were holding talks in Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2025, aimed at restoring relations and reckoning if Ukraine is ready to make concessions under President Donald Trump’s initiative to halt Russia’s war with Ukraine swiftly.
U.S., Ukraine’s main partner before Trump’s inauguration in January, has shifted its approach to the conflict to seek a rapid end to the war. Trump has communicated directly with Moscow, prevented military assistance to Kyiv, and halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
A tense White House clash last month between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy enormously soured ties. That put at risk a minerals deal that Trump stated was key to continued U.S. support and settlement for some $65 billion in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine since Russia overran three years ago.
How has Trump’s foreign policy shift affected Ukraine?
In the face of intense U.S. pressure, Zelenskiy has tried to demonstrate that Kyiv is committed to concluding the war, despite failing to secure U.S. security guarantees in the minerals deal that Kyiv notices as vital for any peace deal.
“We have to understand the Ukrainian position and just have a general idea of what concessions they’d be willing to make because you’re not going to get a ceasefire and an end to this war unless both sides make concessions,”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to reporters in Jeddah.
The leading U.S. diplomat will be accompanied by U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz when they meet with senior Ukrainian officials headed by Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskiy assistant. Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who has been drawn into Ukraine diplomacy, stated he was hopeful the U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement would be signed.
How have Ukraine’s European allies reacted to Trump’s peace plan?
On the other hand, Ukraine’s European allies contend that Kyiv can only negotiate a peace agreement with Russia from a position of strength and Ukraine should not be streamed to the bargaining table with an attacker. Zelenskiy has stated that Putin does not want peace and has cautioned that Russia could strike other European countries if its attack on Ukraine does not result in a clear defeat.
Rubio refused to pinpoint concessions each side would need to make but stated Kyiv would have a problem reclaiming all of its failed territory.
“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it’ll 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,”
He briefed reporters.
Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea which it occupied in 2014, and its soldiers are pushing on the eastern Donetsk region.
