Ukraine-Russia war latest: US and Russia to issue joint statement while Saudi peace talks continue

The US and Russia are expected to release a joint statement following bilateral talks on Monday, CBS News reports.

In Saudi Arabia’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, US officials have met with delegates from Ukraine and Russia as they attempt to bring the two sides towards common ground.

A member of the Russian delegation described yesterday’s Russia-US meeting as “challenging” but “useful”.

In the grand rooms of Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, a US delegation has been deployed for an intense round of diplomacy with officials from Moscow and Kyiv.

Here’s everything we know so far about the separate talks between US officials and their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

• Ukraine and US officials met on Sunday night. Defence minister Rustem Umerov hailed the talks as “productive and focussed”, as the delegations prepare to meet again today.
• Talks between Moscow and the US began yesterday, and were described as “challenging” but “useful” by Russian negotiator Grigory Karasin.
• The United Nations and other countries will now be invited to join the talks, Karasin told the TASS state news agency.
• Along with a ceasefire on energy infrastructure and the prospect of longer-term peace, Washington is seeking to achieve a Black Sea ceasefire in the intense round of diplomacy. This would ensure safe navigation for commercial vessels in the Black Sea.
• The Russian side on Monday played down the possibility of ceasefire talks moving quickly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that many aspects of a peace deal are yet to be sorted, while Moscow’s Foreign Ministry said current negotiations “should not be expected to produce a breakthrough”.
• Russia’s delegation is being led by 70-year-old security service advisor Sergei Beseda, and 75-year-old Grigory Karasin, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Britain.
• Sources close to Donald Trump have told the Telegraph that he will begin to get “frustrated” if Russia and Ukraine both continue bombing energy infrastructure – accusations they have both levelled at each other.

Two people were wounded after a Shahed drone strike in Zaporizhzhia.

“A 58-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man were injured as a result of enemy shelling of Zaporizhzhia district,” the head of the regional military Ivan Fedorov, said on Tuesday.

Fedorov clarified that the Russians attacked the area with “Shaheds”.

In one of the villages, a private house was partially destroyed, outbuildings and a car were damaged.

According to him, the two victims refused to be hospitalised.

Poltava regional military administration, Volodymyr Kohut, said a drone strike had injured two workers in a hanger.

He reported on Telegram: “Last night and tonight in Poltava region, air defence repelled another enemy attack.

“As a result of the fall of the UAV debris in Myrhorod district, the hangar of one of the enterprises was damaged.

“A fire broke out and was promptly extinguished”, he said.

Kohut said that two employees of the company were injured. One of them was hospitalised, while the other was treated at the scene.

Russia launched 139 drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile during an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said this morning.

The air force shot down 78 drones and 34 more did not reach their targets, it added in a statement on Telegram.

The air force did not say what happened to the remaining 27 drones or the missile.

Russia wants to include representatives of the UN as well as other unspecified countries in its talks with the US about ending the Ukraine war, a member of the delegation from Moscow said this morning.

Regarding Monday’s talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian senator Grigory Karasin said: “Everything was discussed – there was an intense, challenging dialogue, but it was very useful for us and for the Americans. Many problems were discussed.”

Mr Karasin, a former diplomat, said that talks would continue and that the United Nations and other – as yet unidentified – countries would be brought in.

“We will continue to do this, involving the international community, first of all, the United Nations and individual countries,” he said.

“In general, the impression was of a constructive dialogue, which is needed and necessary. The Americans are also interested in this,” Mr Karasin said.

A draft joint statement is also expected to be released after the Russia-US talks today, pending approval from Moscow and Washington, a Russian source told Reuters.

China has said it it will not send any peacekeepers to Ukraine to enforce any peace deal.

On being asked about reports speculating that China might send peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a negotiated ceasefire agreement, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun dismissed the idea.

“Let me stress that the report is completely false. China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is clear and consistent,” Mr Guo said at a 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.

China is, however, on close terms with North Korea, which has sent troops to fight alongside the Russian army.

British troops sent to Ukraine as part of a planned peacekeeping force could face “lawfare” under human rights legislation, Tory MPs have warned.

They called on the defence secretary to create an exemption from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for any soldiers sent to the region.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Ukraine said its special forces destroyed four military helicopters in Russia’s Belgorod region with US-provided Himars rocket systems yesterday.

Drone footage published by the special operations team and Ukraine’s ministry of defence showed an aerial view of the attack.

“Special operations forces in cooperation with the GUR of the ministry of defence, missile forces and artillery destroyed two enemy Ka-52 and two Mi-8 helicopters in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation,” the statement said.

“Ukrainian forces appear to be leveraging long-range strikes to complicate Russian logistics and command and control (C2) in the area,” the US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War said.

“Ukrainian forces recently conducted two strikes on Russian command posts in western Belgorod Oblast, destroying communications equipment.”