Ukraine will propose a “sky and sea” truce with Russia during peace talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia. It will be the first meeting of the two nations since the White House bust-up between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump that led to Washington halting military aid to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in what is set to be a crunch week in the peace process. A Ukrainian official said: “We do have a proposal for a ceasefire in the sky and ceasefire at sea, because these are the ceasefire options that are easy to install and to monitor and it’s possible to start with them.” Neither Mr Zelensky nor the US president will attend the talks in Riyadh.
US officials are expected to use the discussions to gauge whether Kyiv is willing to make concessions to Moscow.
It comes as Downing Street confirmed that Sir Keir Starmer will host a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” nations on Saturday.
The Prime Minister will lead the call with about 20 like-minded allies who have expressed an interest in contributing to or supporting a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine if a deal is reached to end the war with Russia.
Military chiefs from potential members of the coalition will meet in France this week.
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin will join counterparts in Paris on Tuesday before Defence Secretary John Healey meets opposite numbers from France, Germany, Italy and Poland in the French capital on Wednesday.
The meeting of defence ministers will also be attended by representatives from NATO and the European Union, with Ukraine’s Rustem Umerov dialling in.
Foreign ministers from the G7 – including David Lammy and US counterpart Marco Rubio – will meet in Canada from Wednesday to Friday.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “There was the meeting last week, there’s another meeting tomorrow, there’s a defence secretary-level meeting on Wednesday, there will be the leaders’ meeting on Saturday.
“Each of these meetings is obviously progressing the planning. I’m not going to get ahead of proposals being made public but obviously these discussions are ongoing, as you can see from these meetings.”
Not all the nations involved in the “coalition of the willing” are expected to commit to joining a peacekeeping force. They could instead offer logistical help for troops in Ukraine or other forms of support.
But Sir Keir has stressed the need for the US to provide a “backstop” security guarantee – a commitment to intervene if a European-led peacekeeping mission comes under threat.
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