Zürcher Nachrichten - Ukraine hopes for at least 'partial ceasefire' at Saudi talks

EUR -
AED 4.100273
AFN 78.60757
ALL 98.166966
AMD 432.286638
ANG 1.997847
AOA 1023.661719
ARS 1274.492205
AUD 1.739351
AWG 2.012159
AZN 1.902168
BAM 1.95574
BBD 2.26123
BDT 136.075794
BGN 1.960574
BHD 0.420487
BIF 3332.496993
BMD 1.116315
BND 1.454255
BOB 7.738761
BRL 6.322034
BSD 1.119965
BTN 95.745041
BWP 15.144532
BYN 3.665087
BYR 21879.783696
BZD 2.24963
CAD 1.559549
CDF 3204.942189
CHF 0.935299
CLF 0.027413
CLP 1051.967484
CNY 8.048081
CNH 8.048713
COP 4704.554582
CRC 567.282465
CUC 1.116315
CUP 29.582361
CVE 110.261592
CZK 24.899757
DJF 199.433835
DKK 7.461011
DOP 65.907963
DZD 148.865399
EGP 55.928271
ERN 16.744732
ETB 151.194627
FJD 2.537725
FKP 0.83994
GBP 0.840567
GEL 3.05914
GGP 0.83994
GHS 13.887571
GIP 0.83994
GMD 80.937172
GNF 9698.700213
GTQ 8.598734
GYD 234.312757
HKD 8.722499
HNL 29.141099
HRK 7.532941
HTG 146.54547
HUF 402.867531
IDR 18412.786848
ILS 3.96752
IMP 0.83994
INR 95.543378
IQD 1467.15465
IRR 47010.84053
ISK 145.891703
JEP 0.83994
JMD 178.534481
JOD 0.791807
JPY 162.594147
KES 144.755526
KGS 97.622219
KHR 4481.861466
KMF 492.857526
KPW 1004.7411
KRW 1561.859763
KWD 0.343145
KYD 0.933371
KZT 571.02235
LAK 24221.251321
LBP 100346.698283
LKR 335.109642
LRD 223.983077
LSL 20.217275
LTL 3.29619
LVL 0.675249
LYD 6.178809
MAD 10.389879
MDL 19.509397
MGA 5019.844837
MKD 61.528098
MMK 2343.6765
MNT 3999.013199
MOP 9.015121
MRU 44.32763
MUR 51.47373
MVR 17.25866
MWK 1941.939975
MXN 21.73009
MYR 4.795735
MZN 71.336723
NAD 20.217275
NGN 1788.71739
NIO 41.208726
NOK 11.593835
NPR 153.192265
NZD 1.897963
OMR 0.429497
PAB 1.119965
PEN 4.129072
PGK 4.654856
PHP 62.294316
PKR 315.375252
PLN 4.268991
PYG 8941.723611
QAR 4.081974
RON 5.106255
RSD 117.226377
RUB 90.497203
RWF 1603.750428
SAR 4.186829
SBD 9.31055
SCR 15.922308
SDG 670.351558
SEK 10.907859
SGD 1.452108
SHP 0.877249
SLE 25.344455
SLL 23408.578004
SOS 640.080215
SRD 40.8365
STD 23105.476908
SVC 9.799697
SYP 14514.261285
SZL 20.222375
THB 37.223582
TJS 11.546543
TMT 3.912686
TND 3.376696
TOP 2.614527
TRY 43.377235
TTD 7.596765
TWD 33.732379
TZS 3021.006621
UAH 46.488763
UGX 4097.873335
USD 1.116315
UYU 46.59856
UZS 14520.55117
VES 105.163869
VND 28936.572095
VUV 133.952878
WST 3.099125
XAF 655.936725
XAG 0.034581
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.016899
XDR 0.815775
XOF 655.936725
XPF 119.331742
YER 272.496621
ZAR 20.143411
ZMK 10048.183034
ZMW 30.104069
ZWL 359.453134
  • RBGPF

    1.5000

    64.5

    +2.33%

  • CMSC

    -0.0500

    22.05

    -0.23%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    12.9

    +1.24%

  • BCE

    -0.0700

    21.56

    -0.32%

  • GSK

    0.4991

    37.64

    +1.33%

  • NGG

    1.2500

    71.28

    +1.75%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    10.5

    0%

  • BCC

    0.9200

    91.91

    +1%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0900

    10.7

    -0.84%

  • RELX

    0.5300

    54.57

    +0.97%

  • RIO

    -0.1100

    62.64

    -0.18%

  • CMSD

    0.0472

    22.06

    +0.21%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    9.45

    +1.9%

  • BTI

    1.2700

    42.64

    +2.98%

  • BP

    0.1300

    29.76

    +0.44%

  • AZN

    0.8500

    68.81

    +1.24%

Ukraine hopes for at least 'partial ceasefire' at Saudi talks
Ukraine hopes for at least 'partial ceasefire' at Saudi talks / Photo: Oleksandr GIMANOV - AFP

Ukraine hopes for at least 'partial ceasefire' at Saudi talks

Ukraine hopes to secure at least a partial ceasefire at upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia, during which US officials will meet separately with Russian and Ukrainian delegations, a senior Ukrainian source told AFP on Friday.

Text size:

Momentum has been building in recent weeks towards a ceasefire in the three-year war as US officials hold talks with both sides, though their efforts have so far failed to yield a breakthrough.

Both Russia and Ukraine say they back a 30-day pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, a pause that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on Tuesday but that Kyiv says Moscow has already broken.

US negotiators will meet separately with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on Monday, in what US envoy Keith Kellogg described to US media as "shuttle diplomacy" between hotel rooms.

Ukraine last week gave its approval to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire on land, air and sea, an idea that Russia rejected.

"We still want to agree on a ceasefire, at least on what we have proposed," a Ukrainian source told AFP, referring to calls for a halt to strikes on energy sites, civilian infrastructure and attacks in the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who will handle a "technical discussion" of issues surrounding the implementation of any truce, the source said.

Those questions included "what facilities" strikes would be limited against, and "how to oversee the ceasefire", the source added.

The Russian delegation will be led by career diplomat Grigory Karasin and senior FSB official Sergei Beseda, neither of whom are seen as high-ranking decision makers.

"They are experienced negotiators with a wealth of experience in this kind of work," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

US President Donald Trump has said he can end the war and has been pursuing rapprochement with Moscow.

- Ceasefire timing 'unclear' -

Putin ordered a limited, 30-day pause on strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure following a call with Trump on Tuesday.

But Zelensky has accused Moscow of continuing to hit energy facilities anyway and said Thursday that nothing had changed, "despite Putin's words".

Russia had recently struck a high-voltage power line near the city of Pokrovsk, a flashpoint for fighting in east Ukraine, an official from Ukraine's largest private energy provider told AFP.

The attack cut power to a village, leaving it completely "cut off", said Vitalii Asinenko, head of the Pokrovsk power distribution zone at DTEK.

Both sides also accused each other of blowing up a gas facility under the control of Ukraine's army in the Russian border region of Kursk earlier on Friday.

The Ukrainian source added that as of yet it was "unclear" when any ceasefire could be implemented. "There have been no reciprocal steps from the Russians," the source added.

"We need to agree on the main thing: what objects and what control. The Americans have enormous intelligence capabilities, so they see a lot," the source added.

Zelensky said the Ukrainian side would present a "list of civilian objects" that he would want included in a ceasefire.

Russia kept up its aerial attacks on Ukraine into Friday.

Zelensky called for allies to exert "joint pressure" on the Kremlin after an overnight barrage of more than 200 drones and guided bombs.

In the Black Sea city of Odesa, an AFP reporter saw the charred remains of a shopping mall destroyed in the overnight attack.

The Russian defence ministry meanwhile said Kyiv "deliberately blew up the Sudzha gas metering station, located a few hundred metres from the state border in the Kursk region."

It said the Ukrainian army had been using the facility as a logistics hub since seizing it in its shock August 2024 cross-border offensive, and blew it up as part of Ukraine's "retreat" from the area.

The defence ministry claimed Kyiv blew up the site specifically to "discredit the peace initiatives of the US president".

"Everyone can see how much we can trust the word of Zelensky and the word of other representatives of the Kyiv regime," Peskov said.

Ukraine's general staff said the claim it was behind the attack was "groundless" and said Russia had "fired artillery at the facility".

bur-afptv-cad/rmb

F.E.Ackermann--NZN