Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's aide Mykhailo Podolyak, on Wednesday (Mar 19), said that talks scheduled for Sunday in Saudi Arabia will be a bilateral affair between the US and Russia, with no plans for Ukraine's participation. 

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However, the outcome of a forthcoming call between Donald Trump and Zelensky will determine when Ukraine will be involved in future talks.

“The president wants to understand the contents of this call fully from Trump. The main thing is to understand how Trump sees the results of his call with Putin, and to draw conclusions from that,” Podolyak said, according to The Guardian.

Reflecting on the last discussion between Trump and Zelenskyy, which was a highly contentious meeting at the White House, marked by a fiery and confrontational tone, he said, “It was a fairly emotional conversation in the Oval Office, and it showed that contradictions had built up. These contradictions were then put on the negotiating table in Saudi Arabia, and very quickly formal and informal communications were made."

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"The administrations created negotiating teams and we quickly moved to discussing concrete issues around these contradictions and found a synchronised position,” he added.

US envoy predicts Ukraine ceasefire in 'couple of weeks'

Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff announced that technical discussions on a potential deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war are set to begin this Monday in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff expressed optimism about the negotiations, predicting that a ceasefire agreement could be reached in as little as "a couple of weeks".

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"I believe on Monday we actually have the technical teams going" to the kingdom, Witkoff told Bloomberg Television early Wednesday as he expressed confidence in ongoing negotiations following a telephone call the previous day between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"They agreed on a pathway to some ceasefire conditions... and to a full-on ceasefire that will be negotiated over the coming days. I actually think in a couple of weeks we're going to get to it," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)