London – The United States has “roughly” raised its freezing on the sharing of information with Ukraine, said President Donald Trump on Sunday, while American and Ukrainian negotiators are preparing for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to approach a peace agreement to end the three-year invasion of Russia.
“Well, we have him roughly,” Trump told journalists on Air Force One when he was asked if he planned to resume the sharing of information. “We want to do our best to make Ukraine seriously do something,” he added.
Trump’s administration has embarked on a dramatic pivot away from the support of “everything” of Ukraine practiced by the administration of former president Joe Biden.
Trump falsely blamed Ukraine for the outbreak of war, tried to undermine the legitimacy of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sought kyiv in a strong hand in a controversial mineral sharing the agreement and frozen military aid and intelligence support in order to force Ukraine to make concessions to Russia.
Ukrainian troops are going through a forest on March 9, 2025 in the Sumy region, Ukraine.
Diego Fedele / Getty Images
Tuesday talks in Riyadh are intended to revitalize bilateral relations after weeks of tense exchanges between Washington, DC and kyiv, which led to an explosive oval office confrontation between Trump, Zelenskyy and vice-president JD Vance.
The American delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office of Zelenskyy. The American team expects Ukraine to show the desire to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.
“We will look at a lot,” he said. “We have great meetings to come. As you know, it is Saudi Arabia that will include Russia. It will be Ukraine. We will see if we can do something.”
“I think everyone wants to see him,” added the president. “We are going to make a lot of progress.”
“I think they will sign the mineral agreement,” said Trump when he asked him questions about the progress of the controversial agreement. “I want them to want peace.” Trump said Ukraine had not yet shown this will.
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists while the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is held near him on the Air Force One on his return to Washington on March 9, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Trump avoided responding if he would place sanctions or prices on Russia and underlined the upcoming meetings of the White House officials in Saudi Arabia. The president also avoided giving a final response when asked if the United States resumed aid to Ukraine if the mineral agreement was signed.
Zelenskyy will go to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet the crown prince of the kingdom and the de facto sovereign, Mohammed bin Salman.
“Tomorrow, we will continue to work to bring peace closer – there will be my visit to Saudi Arabia,” wrote the Ukrainian president on social networks on Sunday. “Also, today, the meeting of our teams – Ukraine and the United States – in Saudi Arabia has been prepared. We hope for the results – both to bring peace and continuous support closer.”
The United States-Ukraine public rupture has aroused concerns among European leaders, the leaders joining Zelenskyy and exhorting him to repair his failed relations with Trump. Managers in Russia have appeared jubilant, openly suggesting that the Trump administration had aligned its opinions on the Kremlin.
Trump and his senior officials said that Ukraine and Russia should make concessions in search of a peace agreement to end the invasion of Moscow, which is itself only the last chapter of more than a decade of cross-border aggression.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, March 6, 2025.
Omar Havana / AP
Trump last week suggested in a social Truth post that he “strongly envisaged large -scale sanctions” and prices on Russia until an agreement was concluded, adding that Moscow “strikes absolutely Ukraine on the battlefield at the moment”. Trump also told a joint session of the congress he had received from “solid signals” that Russia was ready to make peace.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week that US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia were a “positive” development, although stressed that there are unresolved “nuances”.
“The question is who to negotiate with?” Peskov told journalists. Russia has repeatedly designed Zelenskyy as an illegitimate president, invoking the delay in the presidential elections provided in 2024 in Ukraine necessary by the taxation of martial law.
The Kremlin also cited a Ukrainian decree in September 2022 in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin “impossible”, after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially occupied Ukrainian regions.
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine are continuing their long -range missile and drone campaigns. The deadly weekend strikes by Russia condemned several European nations.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for example, wrote on X: “This is what happens when someone soothes the barbarians. More bombs, more assault, more victims.”
Russia launched 176 attacks in Ukraine on Sunday evening, according to Ukrainian Air Force, 130 of which were slaughtered and 42 lost in flight without causing damage. The Air Force reported impacts in the Kharkiv, Poltava and Kyiv regions.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down nine Ukrainian drones overnight.
The tracers are seen in the night sky while the ukrainian anti-airs units shoot on drones during a Russian strike on kyiv, Ukraine, on March 10, 2025.
GLEB GUARANCH / REUTERS
ABC News Kelsey Walsh Walsh has contributed to this report.
