Two senior Ukrainian officials speaking on condition of anonymity about Tuesday's meeting, also told The Associated Press the Ukrainian delegation is ready to sign an agreement with the US on access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals — a deal that President Donald Trump is keen to secure.
The officials discussed the confidence-building measures, with no further details, ahead of the Ukrainian negotiating team's meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah.
Kyiv is trying to repair the damage done after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's February 28 visit to Washington descended into an argument with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
At stake is the military aid and intelligence previously offered by the US that had helped Ukraine in the war but is now paused as Washington pushes for a peace agreement.
Rubio and Zelenskiy landed a few hours apart Monday in Saudi Arabia, but did not meet.
Zelenskiy met with the kingdom's powerful crown prince on Monday evening, with the president saying they "had a detailed discussion on the steps and conditions needed to end the war and secure a reliable and lasting peace".
"Saudi Arabia provides a crucial platform for diplomacy, and we appreciate this," Zelenskiy said online.
Zelensky proposed the release of prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children to their homeland.
This "could become a key step in building trust in diplomatic efforts," Zelensky wrote on X after a meeting with the Saudi crown prince.
"A significant part of the discussion was dedicated to the formats of security guarantees," Zelensky added.
The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of having abducted thousands of children since Moscow started its all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022.
Rubio also met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, thanking him for hosting the talks.
Speaking to reporters aboard his plane before arriving, Rubio said if Ukraine and the US reach an understanding acceptable to Trump, that could accelerate the push to peace talks.
"What we want to know is, are they interested entering some sort of peace conversation and general outlines of the kinds of things they could consider, recognising that it has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians.
"They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly," Rubio said.
"And it's hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that's the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering."
"I'm not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do. I think we want to listen to see how far they're willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are."
The rest of Europe remains sceptical about the talks as it has been sidelined by Washington.
The European Union last week agreed to boost the continent's defences and to free up hundreds of billions of euros for security in response to the Trump administration's shift in stance on Ukraine.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that the pause of US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine had not limited defence intelligence-sharing.
"We never shut off intelligence for ... anything defensive that the Ukrainians need," Witkoff said.
Meanwhile, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, plans a visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, two people briefed on the plans said.
Witkoff, who is officially Trump's Middle East envoy, has played a growing role in efforts to bring about an end to the three-year-old Ukraine war.
The people, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Bloomberg News report that Witkoff would be going to Moscow for talks with Putin.
with reuters and dpa
