Russia says talks with U.S. on limited Ukraine ceasefire "very useful," but nothing to share yet – CBS News

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Updated on: March 25, 2025 / 8:08 AM EDT / CBS News
The U.S. and Russia were expected to release a joint statement early Tuesday morning after discussions in Saudi Arabia aimed at achieving a Black Sea maritime ceasefire deal, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. The statement was expected to come out at 4 a.m. in Washington, D.C., which is 11 a.m. in Moscow, two of the sources said, but that time came and went without any word from American officials.
While the details of the expected statement were not clear, reports shared with the Trump administration from the U.S. technical team in Riyadh seemed optimistic, the sources had said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters more than an hour after the statement had been expected, however, that Russian officials were still analyzing the information relayed back to Moscow by the Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia.
“The content of the technical negotiations will definitely not be ‘published.’ This should not be expected,” he said, characterizing the talks as “negotiations with a deep dive into details.”
“The reports made in the capital [by Russia’s negotiators to the government] are being analyzed, and only then will it be possible to talk about some understandings,” Peskov told reporters, adding that the dialogue between Russian and American officials would continue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency later Tuesday as saying Moscow would consider a new version of a previous Black Sea ceasefire deal with Ukraine, which was crafted to enable the safe shipment of grain products from Ukraine and Russia, but only with “clear guarantees” that he said could “only be the result of an order from Washington” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian negotiator Grigory Karasin, in Riyadh, was cited earlier by TASS as saying Moscow would continue the “useful” talks with the U.S., and would seek to involve the U.N. and other nations.
“We talked about everything, it was an intense dialogue, not easy, but very useful for us and the Americans,” Karasin said, according to TASS, adding that “lots of problems were discussed” during 12 hours of negotiations in a luxury hotel in Riyadh.
Ukrainian officials were also briefed on the content of the U.S.-Russia talks, one of the sources told CBS News. French news agency AFP cited a Ukrainian source as saying Ukrainian and U.S. officials held another round of talks in Riyadh on Tuesday.
“”The talks are over. All details will be announced later,” the source told a small group of media, including AFP.
The previous deal, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey. Russia exited that agreement in 2023, claiming the U.S. and Ukraine’s other international partners had not allowed Moscow to export some agricultural products in violation of the terms. Lavrov’s remarks on Tuesday appeared to confirm that a new version of that limited agreement was being discussed, at least between the Russian and U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.
The State Department’s Michael Anton and the White House National Security Council’s Andrew Peek are among the U.S. officials who have been meeting with the Russian negotiators in Riyadh.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said Sunday on “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan” that a ceasefire on “aerial infrastructure” went into effect immediately after Mr. Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The details of the agreement reached during that phone call have never been confirmed, but Moscow has said it involved an agreement to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, which it almost immediately accused Ukraine of breaching. Mr. Trump said Putin agreed during their call to immediately halt attacks “on all energy and infrastructure” in Ukraine, offering a different version of the deal from the Kremlin. Ukraine accused Russia within hours of breaching the agreement as described by Mr. Trump.
Next on the agenda, Waltz said Sunday, was a maritime ceasefire to allow the movement of grain, fuel, and other goods.
“And then 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. And then, of course, the broader and permanent peace,” Waltz said.
While the talks have been ongoing between U.S. and Russian and, separately, U.S. and Ukrainian officials, the two warring countries continue to launch attacks at each other.
Tucker Reals contributed to this report.
Jennifer Jacobs is a senior White House reporter at CBS News.
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