Putin has sent a disgraced FSB officer and a former Russian ambassador to Britain to lead negotiations with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Sergey Beseda served in Russia’s federal security service (FSB) until he resigned after his unit was accused of sharing faulty intelligence with Putin on the eve of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He will be joined by Grigory Karasin, who served as ambassador to the UK between 2000 and 2005, for talks with a US delegation in Riyadh on Monday.

The Russian delegation will arrive amid concerns Putin is delaying a ceasefire to buy time on the battlefield.