U.S., Russia and Ukraine issued their own statements separately, indicating that they all have their own internal needs at the Riyadh talks, and there is still a long way to go for a real Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, experts told CGTN on Wednesday.
"U.S. President Donald Trump wants to end this matter that happened during the former President Joe Biden's term as soon as possible to reduce the U.S. investment in this matter and reduce the burden on Americans. While, Russia's demands are certainly not a simple ceasefire. Russia not only wants to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but also wants to solve the problems of NATO's eastward expansion and the post-war order in Europe," said Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China.
Their demands are different, and his statements are also different," Wang added.
Three days of technical-level negotiations on the details of a potential ceasefire in Ukraine concluded here on Tuesday without an official joint statement, as participating parties offered somewhat conflicting assessments of the talks.
The intense parallel interactions between the U.S. and delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including a 12-hour one between the U.S. and Russia on Monday, and two shorter rounds between the U.S. and Ukraine on Sunday and Tuesday, came as fighting on the battlefield remains intense.
Although Washington signaled on Tuesday its willingness to continue facilitating negotiations between the warring parties, analysts remain skeptical about the prospects of such a diplomatic push, citing deep-seated distrust, conflicting demands among stakeholders and the inherent complexities of the process.
"The fundamental cause of the current deadlock lies in America's biased approach to mediation – one that failed to address the concerns of both Russia and Ukraine, ignored the stakes of other affected parties, and underestimated the historical intricacies and complexity of the Ukraine crisis," Kang Jie, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told CGTN.
The U.S. mistakenly believed it could hastily broker a ceasefire through a great-power deal that treated smaller nations' interests as bargaining chips, epitomizing the adage: "Haste breeds failure," Kang said.
The ceasefire in the Ukraine crisis marks merely the "beginning of the end," while substantive negotiations for a lasting agreement remain nowhere in sight, Kang said, adding that only when all direct parties and stakeholders are integrated into the negotiation process can there be progress toward a durable agreement that balances competing interests.