A joint statement is expected the next day (25 March).

With Ukrainian negotiators waiting nearby, a day after sitting down at the table with the US team, the Americans and Russians met in Riyadh, with a ceasefire in the Black Sea high on the agenda.

President Donald Trump is pushing for a quick end to the three-year war and hopes the latest round of talks will pave the way for a breakthrough.

As the talks were taking place at a luxury hotel in the Saudi capital, nearly 90 people, including 17 children, were wounded in a rocket attack on the town of Sumi in northeastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Apartments and an educational facility were damaged in the attack on a "densely populated residential area," the regional prosecutor's office said. Earlier, the city's acting mayor said a hospital was hit.

The Ukrainian negotiating team was expecting a second meeting with the US delegation on 24 March, a sign that progress may have been made.

The Russian state news agency TASS quoted a source as saying that the meeting with the United States had ended after "more than 12 hours of consultations" and that a joint statement on the results would be issued on 25 March.

During the previous round of talks this month in Jeddah - days after Trump dumped Zelensky at the White House - Kiev agreed to a 30-day ceasefire offered by the US, which was subsequently rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Officials are now exploring the possibility of resuming the Black Sea Initiative, an agreement that allowed millions of tons of grain and other food products to be exported from Ukraine's ports.

"The issue of the Black Sea Initiative and all aspects related to the renewal of this initiative are on the agenda today. This was President Trump's proposal and President Putin agreed to it. It is with this mandate that our delegation left for Riyadh," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said at his daily briefing.

The US-Ukraine and US-Russia talks were originally planned to take place simultaneously to allow for shuttle diplomacy, with the US going back and forth between the delegations, but now they are taking place one after the other.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who heads the Ukrainian team, said Sunday's talks with the United States were "productive and purposeful."

Trump's envoy, Steve Whitkoff, expressed optimism that any agreement would pave the way for a "complete" ceasefire.

"I think on Monday (March 24) in Saudi Arabia you'll see some real progress, particularly as it relates to the ceasefire on ships in the Black Sea between the two countries. And from that it will naturally lead to a full ceasefire," he said. | BGNES