According to Yuri Ushakov, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide, the US-brokered talks will focus on a ceasefire in the Black Sea. Furthermore, Russia is expected to refrain from targeting energy supplies. This amounts to a partial ceasefire. Moscow has also indicated that the talks in Saudi Arabia will cover grain shipments through the Black Sea, which was part of a preliminary agreement reached in the summer of 2022.
WP explains that negotiators from the two countries will be in separate rooms, and mediators will pass information to both.
"These will be close-quarters negotiations… sort of like shuttle diplomacy in a hotel," Trump's special representative for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, told ABC News.
The Russian delegation in Riyadh will be led by Senator Grigory Karasin, who oversees foreign affairs, and Sergei Beseda, a high-ranking adviser to the director of the FSB.
Ukraine will be represented by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Pavlo Palisa, according to a high-ranking Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the delegation would also include energy experts and "people with a deep understanding of port infrastructure."
The American mediators will include Michael Anton, director of policy planning for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Kellogg's aides and representatives from the office of National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.