(March 24): US and Russian officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia a day after American and Ukrainian teams held talks, as US President Donald Trump pushes for progress in achieving a ceasefire in the war.

The Russian delegation arrived at the venue on Monday for the closed-door talks with the US in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Russia’s Tass news service reported. It’s led by former deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the head of the Federal Security Service in Moscow, the agency said.

The discussions with the US on Sunday were “productive and focused”, and “addressed key points including energy”, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on social media.

The negotiations involving “technical teams” would focus on a potential Black Sea maritime ceasefire, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation. He suggested that would lead into discussions about “the line of control, which is the actual front lines” of the war that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“That gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peace-keeping, freezing the lines where they are,” Waltz said. “And then, of course, the broader and permanent peace” including security guarantees for Ukraine.

The talks follow Trump’s separate phone calls last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which led to an agreement on a 30-day halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. 

Zelenskiy said on Sunday that “massive Russian drone attacks” were continuing, and he called on US and European allies to put “more pressure on Russia to stop this terror”.

Ukraine’s state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said it faced a massive cyberattack hitting most of its online services in a Facebook post on Monday. Train traffic is stable despite the attack, it said. 

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