Senior U.S. officials, including the country’s top diplomats, will hold talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the Ukrainian war, officials said Monday. Neighbors invaded about three years ago.
Talks scheduled for Tuesday in Saudi Arabia mark another critical step for the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy of isolating Russia and intend to be between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting paves the way.
Recently, the U.S. diplomatic blitzkrieg against the war has caused Kiev and key allies to scramble for fear that Washington and Moscow could reach a deal that was against them in advance. France convened an emergency meeting between EU countries and the UK on Monday to decide how to respond.
Russian State Television reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin's diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov set out for the Saudi capital on Monday. Secretary of State Tammy Bruce said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will Meet with the Russian delegation. Ukraine will not participate.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks would focus mainly on “the entire scope of restoring U.S.-Russian relations and preparing possible negotiations on Ukrainian settlements and organizing the two presidents' Meeting”.
Bruce said the meeting was intended to determine how serious the Russians were about peace and whether detailed negotiations could be initiated.
She told reporters to travel with Rubio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Even if Ukraine won’t attend Tuesday’s talks, actual peace talks will only take place with Ukraine’s participation, Bruce said. Kiev's participation in any peace talks is the cornerstone of the policies of Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden.
Speech on Fox News Channel Futures on Sunday morning Witkoff's plan said he and Waltz would “meet in the president's direction” and hoped to “make some good progress in Russia-Ukraine”.
Witkov did not directly answer questions about whether Ukraine must abandon “important parts” on its territory, which is part of a solution to any negotiation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO Ukraine’s membership is unrealistic and suggested that Kiev should give up hope to win all its territory from Russia, two key items on Putin’s wish list .
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree to visit each other's countries and begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine as Trump calls “profitable” . It is unclear whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will play a role in peace talks.
If Kief does not participate, Ukraine will not accept results
Negotiations will mark a significant expansion of US-Russia contacts, a war that has been in the war for nearly three years and has reached its lowest level for decades.
Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony briefly talked about the intervals between a G20 meeting held in India about two years ago. The 10-minute conversation didn’t ease the tension, and they actually increased in the following months.
In the fall of 2022, U.S. and Russian spies encountered nuclear weapons in Turkey due to Washington's concerns about nuclear weapons that Moscow might encounter on the battlefield.
Tuesday's talks came on a phone call between Trump and Putin, and the U.S. president said they “agree to get our team to start negotiations immediately.” The years after the call for US policy rose, ending the isolation of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
After the call, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to inform him of their conversation.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that Zelenskyy “will be involved in it” without elaborating.
The Ukrainian president said on Monday that his country was not invited to the upcoming talks and that if Kiev did not attend, the results would not be accepted.
In a conference call with journalists in the United Arab Emirates, Zelenskyy said that the U.S.-Russia negotiations will “have no results” given that there are no Ukrainian officials.
Zelenskyy said he will travel to Türkiye on Monday and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but his trip to the Arab country has nothing to do with talks in the United States and Russia.
EU officials pushed the group – with the United States to support Kiev – with a voice in any Ukrainian peace talks, and Zelensky and his officials also insisted that Europe exists in the negotiations.
When asked about the possible role Europe could play, Lavrov felt disdainful on Monday, saying: “I don't know what they are going to do in the negotiations.”
Asked about expectations for the Riyadh conversation, he said Trump and Putin “agree to abandon the absolute exceptional period in the relationship between our great powers when they effectively stopped any contact, except Some technical and humanitarian issues.”
“The president agreed that it is necessary to have dialogue on all issues that can be resolved through Russia and the United States,” Lavrov said. “They mentioned that the situation in Ukrainian settlements and in some parts of the Middle East and other parts of the world is not at the moment.”
Lavrov utterly ruled out the possibility of any territorial gains from Moscow as part of a potential reconciliation, saying “no even thought.”
Putin asked Ukraine to withdraw troops from four areas illegally annexed by Russia in September 2022, but never completely captured and abandoned its bid to join NATO as part of any potential peace agreement – Kiev demanded that Kiev refuse.
Zelenskyy also confirmed that General Keith Kellogg, who retired from Trump's special envoy against Russia and Ukraine, will arrive in Kiev on February 20 for “a broad dialogue on security assurance.”
Zelenskyy said he wanted to bring Kellogg to the frontline and hopes that Americans can get back to the White House what they learned from his trip to Ukraine, adding: “I think we will know when we know me after he returns to the United States. Will meet with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy said the possibility of opening up its country's mineral resources to the United States, as Trump suggested, may require a written agreement on Ukraine's security guarantee. Ukraine and several European countries insist that Russia could invade the country again without security guarantees, even if it reached a settlement.
Zelenskyy said the guarantees could include NATO membership, where Heggs poured cold water on it, weapons and financial support. Ukraine also expressed hope to join the EU, but this is complicated and may take years.
