By JON GAMBRELL and ILLIA NOVIKOV, Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. negotiators worked on a proposed partial ceasefire in Ukraine on Monday, meeting with representatives from Russia a day after holding separate talks with the Ukrainian team. Each side has accused the other of undermining efforts to reach a pause in the 3-year-old war. Kyiv and Moscow agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, but the parties have offered different views of what targets would be off-limits to attack. While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would also like to see railways and ports protected. In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP) Talks Monday are expected to address some of those differences, as well as a potential pause in attacks in the Black Sea to ensure the safety of commercial shipping. U.S. and Russian representatives met in the morning in the Saudi capital, Russia’s state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies reported. The U.S. and Ukrainian teams met Sunday in Riyadh. Serhii Leshchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said the delegation remained in Riyadh on Monday and expected to meet again with the Americans. Grigory Karasin, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament’s upper house and a participant in Monday’s talks, told the Interfax news agency the negotiations were going on in a “creative way” and that the U.S. and Russian delegations “understand each other’s views.” Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine continued to launch attacks across their borders. In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack near Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP) The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday a Ukrainian drone attacked an oil pumping station in southern Russia that serves a pipeline carrying Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil to the Russian port of Novorossiisk for export. It said the drone was downed before it could reach the pumping station. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday the Russian military has been fulfilling President Vladimir Putin’s order to halt attacks on energy facilities for 30 days. He has accused Ukraine of derailing the partial ceasefire with attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, including a gas metering station in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the station, a claim Peskov called “absurd.” Zelenskyy said Sunday evening that “since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this.” He added that Ukraine’s partners — “the U.S., Europe, and others around the world” — should increase pressure on Russia “to stop this terror.” Zelenskyy has emphasized that Ukraine is open to Trump’s proposal of a full, 30-day ceasefire. Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he expected “some real progress” at talks and that a pause in hostilities by both countries in the Black Sea would “naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire.” China rules out supplying peacekeeping forces Asked about reports speculating that China might send peacekeepers to Ukraine to enforce any peace deal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded Monday with an unequivocal no. “Let me stress that the report is completely false. China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is clear and consistent,” Guo said at a briefing. China has provided Russia with trade earnings from oil and other natural resources, along with diplomatic backing, but has not given any weapons or sent any personnel. China is, however, on close terms with North Korea, which has sent troops to fight alongside the Russian army. Ukrainian railways hit by cyberattack A “massive targeted cyberattack” hit Ukrainian state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia on Sunday, the company wrote on Telegram, adding that it was working to restore its systems on Monday. The company said the attack did not affect train movements or schedules but disrupted its online booking system. “The railway continues to operate despite physical attacks on the infrastructure, and even the most vile cyberattacks cannot stop it,” the company wrote. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces claimed Monday it destroyed four military helicopters in Russia’s Belgorod region with the use of U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems. It published drone footage on its Telegram page of what it said was the attack. The strikes occurred at a concealed “jumping-off point” for Russian aircraft used in surprise attacks on Ukrainian forces, the group said. Russian troops, meanwhile, fired 99 attack and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force, of which 57 were shot down and 36 were lost from radar, according to Ukraine’s air force. In the Kyiv region, one man was injured by shrapnel as a Russian drone struck a residential area, according to the acting head of the Kyiv region, Mykola Kalashnyk, writing on Telegram. In the Kharkiv region, a Russian drone struck a residential building in the village of Velyka Babka, injuring a 25-year-old man and a pregnant woman. Both were hospitalized, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov. In Zaporizhzhia, Russian drones damaged several houses overnight with one elderly woman slightly injured, regional head Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram. Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report. ...read more read less