Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the talks between Ukrainian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia as “constructive and beneficial,” in his evening address on March 23.

"Today marks the second meeting between the Ukrainian and American teams in Saudi Arabia. This time it is more technical – involving our military, our diplomats and representatives from the Ministry of Energy,” Zelenskiy said in a video post after the meeting. “I've just spoken with [Defence Minister] Rustem Umerov, who updated me on the meeting and the progress of the discussions. Our team is working quite constructively, and the discussion has been very beneficial. The work of the delegations is ongoing."

The discussions were part of the ongoing trilateral ceasefire talks designed to bring the three-year-old conflict to an end.

“Our team is working quite constructively, and the discussion has been very beneficial. The work of the delegations is ongoing,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video address to the people.

However, few details were released and the format of the talks, which didn’t include the Russian delegation, were seen as a setback for Ukraine. Originally, it was planned to hold the US-Ukraine and US-Russia talks simultaneously to allow for “shuttle diplomacy” – where US delegates could move between the parallel meetings to allow for a measure of concurrent negotiations. But before the meeting began it was decided to postpone the US-Russia meeting by 24-hours to March 24.

Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin) and Ukraine’s European partners have become alarmed as it becomes clear that US President Donald Trump is more interested in doing business with Russia than bringing the war to an end on equitable terms for Ukraine. The White House has insisted that Ukraine sign off on a harsh minerals deal that gives away concessions to half its natural resources before a deal can be agreed and chemistry between Trump and Zelenskiy is poor following a shouting match between two presidents in the White House on February 28.

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff added fuel to those fears by parroting multiple Kremlin talking points in an interview with Russia-sympathetic celebrity US journalist Tucker Carlson on March 23. Amongst other things, he claimed that the referenda last year that led to the annexation of four Ukrainian regions on September 30 where legitimate and “overwhelmingly” showed the locals wanted to join Russia, when the poll was held at gunpoint and widely condemned by the international community.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s Chief of Staff, reinforced Zelenskiy’s president’s comments on the weekend talks, saying they were “focused and helpful” for promoting Ukraine’s strategic interests.

Zelenskiy has become frustrated at the slow progress after Bankova accepted an unconditional 30-day ceasefire on March 11, but Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to only refrain from targeting Ukraine’s energy assets in a 1.5-hour phone call with Trump a week later. Since then Russia has continued to strike civilian targets all over Ukraine. Missiles struck residential housing over the weekend and at least two people were reported burned to death, trapped in their apartments by the explosions.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia, said that the discussions involved military, diplomatic, and energy representatives. “The conversation was constructive and meaningful – we discussed key issues, including in the energy sector,” Umerov wrote on Facebook.

Zelenskiy also used the occasion to urge the international community to intensify pressure on Russia to secure the ceasefire he agreed to earlier this month.

“Since March 11, there has been a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, which would have stopped such attacks. But it is Russia that continues all of this. Without pressure on Russia, Moscow will continue to treat true diplomacy with contempt and destroy lives,” Zelenskiy stated.

Zelenskiy said that only Moscow’s willingness to halt aggression could bring about meaningful progress. “Whatever we are discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be forced to issue a real order to stop the strikes: whoever started this war must be the one to end it,” he added, as cited by The Kyiv Independent.

US negotiators are preparing for a second round of talks in Riyadh with the Russian delegation on March 24. The Ukrainian delegation is still in Riyadh and some shuttle diplomacy may happen between the two meetings.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative that was agreed in the first year of the war was conducted in a similar fashion: the Ukrainian and Russian delegations never met, but negotiated at a distance with the UN and Turkey acting as intermediaries to thrash out an agreement.

According to Witkoff, Washington is also set to hold diplomatic talks with Moscow in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine has firmly stated that no direct communication with Russia will take place in Saudi Arabia this week.