U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh: Energy and Black Sea ceasefire on the table

The talks, which focus on halting attacks on energy and critical infrastructure facilities and reaching a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea, are being held behind closed doors at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and journalists have been asked to leave the premises.

The U.S. team is led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official.

Russia is represented by Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who is now chair of the Russian upper house of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and by Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the director of the Federal Security Service.

The Ukrainian and U.S. teams met for nearly five hours in the evening of March 23. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov described them as "productive and focused."

The U.S. is acting as a mediator between the Ukrainian and Russian teams at the Riyadh talks.

“Technical teams in Saudi Arabia will conduct what we call indirect negotiations. Both sides — Ukraine and Russia — will be in separate rooms, where you essentially ask, ‘What are your conditions?’ and then the same with the other side,” U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on March 20, describing the process as “shuttle diplomacy between rooms in Riyadh.”