Ukraine and Russia will have separate ceasefire talks with US in Riyadh

Ukraine will have a delegation in Riyadh on the same day as the US holds ceasefire talks with a Russian negotiating team led by a secretive former Russian security agency chief who played a key role in planning Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion.

- Pjotr Sauer Shaun Walker Kyiv Andrew Roth Washington

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the delegation would meet US representatives on March 24 and supply a list of energy infrastructure that would be off-limits for strikes by the Russian military.

The US representatives will then meet with the Russian negotiating team, Zelenskyy said yesterday.

The Ukrainian announcement indicates that the US could shuttle between the two sides to try to achieve Donald Trump's goal of a quick ceasefire in the war.

But both Russia and Ukraine have already disputed the White House's accounts of their earlier talks with the US president, indicating that Trump may have misrepresented the progress of the talks - and his chances of striking a quick ceasefire to halt the war.

Speaking yesterday, Zelenskyy contradicted Trump by denying that he had discussed a US plan to take over Ukrainian power plants as part of a peace deal, saying that they "belong to the people of Ukraine."

Trump had announced on Wednesday that US ownership of the plants "would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure".