Why does it matter?
The president of Ukraine flew to Saudi Arabia on Monday. However, personally Volodymyr Zelenski will not participate in Tuesday negotiations. The Ukrainian delegation for these talks consists, among others, of president Andrij Jermak's head of cabinet, abroad Minister Andrija Sybiha and Defence Minister Rustem Umorov. The US delegation is headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
What is Ukraine's proposal?
One Ukrainian authoritative told the AFP agency that Ukraine would propose Russia a ceasefire in the air and at sea. Volodymyr Zelenski wrote about this thought in early March. “We are ready to work rapidly to end the war, and the first steps may be to release prisoners and ceasefire in the air — a ban on rockets, long-range drones, energy infrastructure bombs and another civilian infrastructure — and an immediate ceasefire at sea if Russia does the same” — declared the president of Ukraine.
Russia has so far rejected the thought of a ceasefire, as it argues that it would be gaining time for Ukraine and trying to avoid the collapse of Kiev's troops.
What did Marco Rubio say?
— I am not saying that this alone is enough, but this is the kind of concession that it takes to end the conflict — he assessed the possible proposal to suspend Marco Rubio's arms.
The U.S. Secretary of State said before the gathering that it was crucial to “clear the intentions of Ukraine” on the peace agreement and that the country “will gotta prepare for hard things, just as the Russians will gotta do hard things to end it”.
— I do not intend to give them any conditions as to what they must or do not gotta do," he added. “ We want to hear how far they are willing to go and compare it with what the Russians want and then see how different we are from each other, ” added Rubio.
He stated that both sides had to realise that "there is no military solution" to the conflict and that it could only be solved by " diplomatic means".
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