Ukraine war live: US and Russia start ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia as attacks continue

Summary of the day so far…

Talks between the US and Russian delegations are continuing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Here is an update on what we know:

The talks are centred on the safety of shipping in the Black Sea. Washington has been eyeing a Black Sea ceasefire deal, a major aim of Russia, before securing a wider agreement. The White House wants a maritime ceasefire to allow the free flow of shipping.
Moscow is interested in restoring a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its ports without being attacked, according to reports. If the deal is revived, Russia would export farm produce and fertiliser through the Black Sea, getting relief from sanctions imposed by western countries.
Moscow and Washington believe they have a common understanding on the need to move towards a settlement to end the war. However, Reuters reported that there are still many different aspects of that to be worked out.
Sunday’s talks between Ukraine and the US were technical, related to infrastructure and shipping safety, but “productive and focused” and the Kyiv delegation remains in Saudi Arabia. Ukrainian adviser Serhiy Leshchenko says further talks could take place with the US.
The Kremlin says a suspension on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, agreed in the Putin-Trump phone call last Tuesday, remains in place. At least seven people were killed in a barrage of strikes from more than 140 drones across Ukraine on Sunday, according to local officials and emergency services. Another wave of drones was fired into Ukraine overnight. The Russian military says they intercepted 28 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine says its forces destroyed four Russian military helicopters. Ukraine’s state-owned railway says its online systems have been hit by a cyber-attack.

Key events

Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who negotiated the 2014 Minsk accords between Russia and Ukraine and a participant in Monday’s talks in Riyadh, told the Interfax news agency the negotiations were going on in a “creative way” and that the US and Russian delegations “understand each other’s views”.

He is part of a negotiation team that includes Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the head of the Russia’s FSB security agency.

The American delegation is being led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House national security council, and Michael Anton, a senior state department official.

The hotel in Riyadh where US and Russian delegations are discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Russian missile attack on Sumy damages hospital, school and residential area

A Russian missile attack on an industrial facility in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Monday damaged a residential area and a hospital, and injured at least 28 people, a local official said.

At least four children were among the injured, acting Sumy mayor Artem Kobzar said on the Telegram messenger app. He did not identify the industrial facility.

“The enemy launched a missile strike on the city centre. Several high-rise buildings, and a school are damaged. Children were in a shelter,” the Sumy region’s governor Volodymyr Artiukh said from the site in a video posted on Telegram and reported by Reuters.

The Kremlin earlier said a suspension on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, agreed in the Putin-Trump phone call last Tuesday, remains in place.

Sumy, about 30 km (18.6 miles) from the Russian border, as well as the surrounding region, is subject to constant drone and missile strikes by Russia.

Ukraine’s state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Monday traffic was not disrupted by a cyberattack that knocked out its online ticketing system.

“Operational traffic did not stop for a single moment. The enemy attack was aimed to stop trains, but we quickly switched to backup systems,” Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, Ukrzaliznytsia’s board chairman, told national TV in comments carried by Reuters. The outage was first reported on Sunday.

Vladimir Putin last week agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine energy targets for 30 days, after a lengthy phone call with US President Donald Trump. But there is confusion about what constitutes energy infrastructure, with Kyiv pushing for railways and ports to be protected under the definition, which the Kremlin has framed narrowly.

Summary of the day so far…

Talks between the US and Russian delegations are continuing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Here is an update on what we know:

The talks are centred on the safety of shipping in the Black Sea. Washington has been eyeing a Black Sea ceasefire deal, a major aim of Russia, before securing a wider agreement. The White House wants a maritime ceasefire to allow the free flow of shipping.
Moscow is interested in restoring a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its ports without being attacked, according to reports. If the deal is revived, Russia would export farm produce and fertiliser through the Black Sea, getting relief from sanctions imposed by western countries.
Moscow and Washington believe they have a common understanding on the need to move towards a settlement to end the war. However, Reuters reported that there are still many different aspects of that to be worked out.
Sunday’s talks between Ukraine and the US were technical, related to infrastructure and shipping safety, but “productive and focused” and the Kyiv delegation remains in Saudi Arabia. Ukrainian adviser Serhiy Leshchenko says further talks could take place with the US.
The Kremlin says a suspension on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, agreed in the Putin-Trump phone call last Tuesday, remains in place. At least seven people were killed in a barrage of strikes from more than 140 drones across Ukraine on Sunday, according to local officials and emergency services. Another wave of drones was fired into Ukraine overnight. The Russian military says they intercepted 28 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine says its forces destroyed four Russian military helicopters. Ukraine’s state-owned railway says its online systems have been hit by a cyber-attack.

Vladimir Putin has spoken to UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan about the OPEC+ agreement and Russia-US talks on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Putin thanked the UAE president for mediating in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Ukraine’s delegation plans to meet US officials after Russian talks conclude – report

The Ukrainian delegation remains in Saudi Arabia for further talks with the US, having had discussions yesterday, Serhiy Leshchenko, an advisor to the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, told Ukrainian news agency Unian.

Leshchenko said:

These are technical negotiations. Usually, negotiations are not one day. And sometimes they last months, and some negotiations, like the Middle East settlement, last for years, so I don’t want us to compare ourselves to that.

We just have to understand that the meetings will be quite regular, and not every meeting ends with public statements.

Leshchenko, who said talks with American officials are about “infrastructure and shipping safety”, along with a mutual ceasefire, added:

This is infrastructure and shipping safety. And it was about a mutual ceasefire. We are not attacking their facilities at sea, including river facilities.

They are not attacking our facilities and our ports – Kherson, Mykolaiv, and the ports of greater Odessa, so that they function.

US officials held initial talks with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, in what the Ukrainian delegation described as a “productive and focused” meeting, and were meeting separately with Russia on Monday.

A senior Ukrainian official confirmed to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that Ukrainian officials are expecting to meet their American counterparts to continue discussing a potential ceasefire later, after the round of talks between negotiators from Russia and the US has finished.

“We are so far waiting for the outcome of the meeting between the United States and Russia. Based on that, we will have another meeting with the United States,” the official said.

What are Russia’s conditions for a long term settlement?

Pjotr Sauer

Pjotr Sauer is a Russian affairs reporter for the Guardian

Moscow has set out several maximalist conditions for any long-term settlement – most of which are non-starters for Kyiv and its European allies.

These include a halt to all foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, restrictions on the size of its armed forces, and international recognition of the four Ukrainian regions Russia illegally annexed following staged referendums in 2022.

The Kremlin has also signalled it would reject any presence of western troops in Ukraine – something Kyiv views as essential to securing lasting security guarantees.

Ukraine remains deeply sceptical of any Russian agreement, pointing to past instances where Moscow failed to honour its commitments.

Beijing has dismissed reports that China might send peacekeepers to Ukraine to enforce any future peace deal.

“Let me stress that the report is completely false. China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is clear and consistent,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily briefing.

China has provided Russia with trade earnings from oil and other natural resources, along with diplomatic backing, but has not given any weapons or sent any personnel.

Beijing and Moscow proclaimed a “no limits” partnership just days before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict and has repeatedly signalled a willingness to act as a peacemaker in the war.

Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on the sidelines of Brics summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP POOL/EPA

At least four people were killed and 13 others injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day, regional officials reported earlier today.

Two people were killed in the Donetsk region (one in Pokrovsk and one in the village of Donetske) and two in the Sumy region, according to local officials. We have not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

At his daily briefing with journalists, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was Donald Trump who had proposed discussing the collapsed Black Sea deal at the talks and that Vladimir Putin had agreed for it to be a topic for discussion.

“This is primarily about the safety of navigation,” Peskov said, when asked what the Black Sea deal amounted to.

“But if you remember the initiative in its previous form, there was quite a large part of the obligations to our country that were not fulfilled last time. Therefore, this will also be on the agenda today.”

The UN and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal in July 2022 that allowed Ukraine to safely ship grain and other foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports. A separate memorandum between the UN and Russia pledged to overcome obstacles to Moscow’s shipment of food and fertiliser to world markets.

But Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative in July 2023. Vladimir Putin partly blamed the withdrawal on western sanctions that he said restricted the sale of Russian agricultural products abroad.

Kremlin says Russian moratorium on Ukrainian energy attacks remains in place despite continued strikes

The Kremlin is claiming that a suspension on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, agreed in the Putin-Trump phone call last Tuesday, remains in place.

Last week, Vladimir Putin agreed to Donald Trump’s proposal for a 30-day halt on attacks to energy infrastructure. The ceasefire, however, was cast into doubt soon after, with both sides reporting continued strikes.

“So far, there have been no other orders from the president,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked if Russia intended to maintain its moratorium or not.

Speaking to journalists at a daily briefing, he added:

Our armed forces are following all instructions of the supreme commander-in-chief, but of course we are monitoring the situation very closely.

Our American interlocutors are also able to monitor the situation and draw the appropriate conclusions.

Russia has been relentlessly targeting Ukraine’s infrastructure since it launched its full scale invasion in February 2022, while in recent months Ukraine has been increasingly able to hit targets deep inside Russia with long-range drones.

Kyiv, which accused Russia of flouting its moratorium almost immediately, said it would need to sign a formal document to suspend its own attacks, something which has not happened.