SH.BA, Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since spraying the Oval Office

US and Ukrainian officials are holding talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, marking the first time both sides have met since the spectacular office of ovals between President Donald Trump and Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the end of February.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the American delegation, which includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Zelenskyy Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak.

President Zelenskyy is not involved in the meeting, though he traveled to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has taken on a central role in the US, Ukraine and Russia unification to demand an end to three years of war in Ukraine.

Tuesday’s meeting has been billed as a “high stock” meeting, given the tensions raised between Washington and Kyiv that encouraged the US to shorten all military aid and sharing intelligence with KYIV, placing its battlefield forces under more pressure.

The meeting, SH.BA said, has been created to see how serious Ukraine is to make concessions to end the war, though the compromises the US have in mind – such as the occupied ceding of the territory in Russia and the forgetting of any NATO future membership – are bitter pills to swallow.

Rubio, who also met the Prince of the Saudi Crown separately on Monday, repeated at the time when Kyiv will have to accept Russian control of some of his territory as part of a broader peace agreement. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine currently. Kyiv has said that there is a need for security guarantees as part of any peace agreement in order to hinder the future Russian aggression, but the US has so far refused to offer these insurances.

“The important point in this meeting is to clearly determine their [Ukraine’s] The goals, their desire, as they have publicly said now many times, to reach a point where peace is possible. And then we will have to determine how far they are from the Russian position, which we do not know either, “Rubio told journalists in Jeddah on Monday.

“Once you understand where both sides really are, it gives you a sense of how big the separation is and how difficult it will be. So I hope it will be a positive interaction along those lines,” he said.

“The most important thing to leave here is a strong sense that Ukraine is ready to do difficult things, how the Russians will have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause in some way, shape or form,” he said.

Ukraine has been trying to create a lost terrain with SH.BA giving a significant approach between Washington and Moscow to see both parties meet in Riyadh last month, with Ukraine and its European allies excluded from the meeting. Tensions between Kyiv and Washington then exploded in a public falling between Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President JD Vance on February 28.

Kyiv’s leadership has moved to repair relationships and build bridges from them, calling what happened “sorry”, with Trump and other officials saying that Zelenskyy has also apologized for the meeting he returned rounded by US officials before leaving the White House in a hurry, leaving a critical mineral.