Ukraine-Russia war live: US-led ceasefire talks start in Saudi Arabia after Putin bombs Kyiv for third night

Officials from Kyiv and Washington met in Riyadh’s grand Ritz-Carlton hotel last night, to discuss a partial ceasefire in Ukraine.

The meeting addressed the “complex technical issues” of a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, Kyiv’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said on X.

After the meeting concluded, Mr Umerov hailed the “productive and focussed” talks, adding that Ukraine is working to secure just and lasting peace for all of Europe.

Talks between the US and Russia have begun in Saudi Arabia, Russian state media reports.

In an intense round of diplomacy, US officials will hold simultaneous talks with their counterparts from Kyiv and Moscow as they look to push through a 30-day partial ceasefire in Ukraine.

The delegations will also discuss the prospect of a longer-term peace deal following the initial ceasefire.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 57 drones out of 99 launched by Russia overnight.

Another 36 imitator drones did not reach their targets, it said. It did not specify what happened to the remaining six drones.

Steve Witkoff said the Labour leader’s idea of a peacekeeping force made up of the ‘coalition of the willing’ was based on a “simplistic” notion of thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.

Mr Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with Russia and Ukraine.

A US delegation will seek progress toward a Black Sea ceasefire and a broader cessation of violence in the war in Ukraine when it meets for talks with Russian officials today, held after separate discussions with diplomats from Ukraine.

A source briefed on the planning for the talks said the US side was being led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official.

They met the Ukrainians last night and plan to sit down with the Russians this morning.

The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping

The Russian and US delegations plan to begin their talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at 7am GMT (10am Moscow time), the Russian state news TASS agency reported, citing an unnamed source.

The ceasefire negotiations will be held on the same day as separate talks take place between the US and Ukrainian officials, also in Saudi Arabia.

On the eve of the talks, US special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about the chances for ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War.

The fate of currently Russia-occupied Ukrainian territory will be one of the key areas of discussion at the talks in Saudi Arabia today.

Russian forces have illegally occupied one-fifth of Ukraine since they launched the full-scale military invasion over three years ago.

Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz was asked yesterday if the US would accept a peace deal in which Russia was allowed to keep Ukrainian territory.

He replied: “We have to ask ourselves, is it in our national interest? Is it realistic?… Are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil?”

Ukraine says it already recognises that it cannot recapture some occupied Ukrainian territory by force and that it will have to be returned diplomatically over time.

Kyiv says, however, that it will never recognise Russian sovereignty over Ukrainian territory.

US officials are due to meet negotiators from Ukraine and from Russia in Saudi Arabia today to discuss the details of a proposed 30-day ceasefire on strikes on energy infrastructure, as well as a longer-term peace deal.

The halt on infrastructure attacks was loosely agreed in talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump last week, with a 30-day timeline.

But that narrowly defined ceasefire was quickly cast into doubt, with Moscow saying Ukraine hit an oil depot in southern Russia while Kyiv said Russia had struck hospitals and homes, and knocked out power to some railways.

Last week Mr Zelensky said Kyiv would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to the partial ceasefire. That list could include not only energy, but also rail and port infrastructure, he said.

A moratorium on energy infrastructure strikes could favour Moscow more than Kyiv, given it would prevent Ukraine from conducting long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities, a key way that it has inflicted pain on its enemy.

The electronic hum in the sky above told him that the Russians were on a hunting safari and that he was the prey. Leaping from his bicycle, Oleksandr left its wheels spinning as he bolted through a hole in a fence hoping to find cover.

Horrified to discover he was still in the open air, he threw himself against the fence, hoping to blend in, to somehow hide. The drone tracked sideways, hung above him, and dropped its bomb.

The explosion tore a chunk of his leg away.

Ukrainians living in bombed-out Kherson tell world affairs editor Sam Kiley how Russian drones target them as they go about their daily lives – and how their brutal injuries are cared for in a hospital forced underground:

Russia’s air defence units intercepted and destroyed 28 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, 12 drones were downed each over the border Kursk region and the southern Russia Rostov region, the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

The remaining four were destroyed over Crimea, the Krasnodar region and the waters of the Sea of Azov, the ministry added.