Ukrainian and US delegations discussed on Sunday proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine's defence minister said, part of a diplomatic push by US President Donald Trump to end three years of war.The meeting in Saudi Arabia, which precedes talks on Monday between the US and Russian delegations, came as US special envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about the chances for ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.’I feel that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants peace,’ Witkoff told Fox News.’I think that you're going to see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly as it affects a Black Sea ceasefire on ships between both countries. And from that, you'll naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire.’Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country's delegation to talks was working in ‘a completely constructive manner’, adding: ‘The conversation is quite useful, the work of the delegations is continuing.’But no matter what we say to our partners today, we need to get Putin to give a real order to stop the strikes,’ Zelenskiy said in a televised statement.Ukraine's delegation was headed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who said the aim of such contacts was helping to ‘bring a just peace closer and to strengthen security’, though Zelenskiy also said the talks were essentially ‘technical’.Putin agreed last week to Trump's proposal for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days, but that narrowly defined ceasefire was soon cast into doubt, with both sides reporting continued strikes.A large-scale Russian drone attack on Kyiv overnight killed at least three people, including a 5-year-old child, causing fires in high-rise apartment buildings and damage throughout the capital, Ukrainian officials said.Zelenskiy, facing continued advances by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, has backed Trump's call for a blanket 30-day ceasefire.The US hopes to reach a broad ceasefire within weeks, targeting a truce agreement by April 20, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the planning.White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday the United States was talking through a range of confidence-building measures aimed at ending the war, including on the future of Ukrainian children taken into Russia.Asked about the goals for the broader negotiations, Waltz said that after a Black Sea ceasefire was agreed, ‘we'll talk the line of control, which is the actual front lines’.’And that gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are,’ Waltz said. ‘And then of course, the broader and permanent peace.’
