The United States and Russia agree to “start efforts to end the road to Ukrainian war” at a meeting with the Ukrainians

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Senior officials from Russia and the United States met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start talking about improving ties and negotiations end Ukrainian War. As CBS news correspondent Holly Williams reported, some believe that the Trump administration only agreed to hold a high-level meeting with his regime because he granted certain things in February's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. degree of victory. 24, 2022 meeting.

Ukrainian leaders may feel this view most keenly, and they were not invited to participate in preliminary discussions about the fate of their country.

The delegation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was closed at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting marked another important step in President Trump's move to revoke his three-year policy, committed to isolating Russia's war against Ukraine, paving the way for a possible meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin.

After the meeting, U.S. State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce told reporters that the U.S. and Russia delegations had agreed to establish a “advisory mechanism to resolve the stimulators of our bilateral relations,” Rubio told reporters, including two Re-written the respective embassies of the country.

Bruce said Rubio and Lavrov had agreed to appoint “a senior team to start on the road to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible, in a lasting, sustainable and all-round way of acceptance.” Rubio said his respective ambassadors in Washington and Moscow The museum needs to be re-mastered because “we need to perform dynamic diplomatic missions so that we can continue these channels.”

Neither Bruce's statement nor statements at the State Council meeting said anything about the participation of Ukraine or its European neighbors in the negotiations. The State Department said only that Mr. Trump was “the only leader in the world who could get Ukraine and Russia to agree” to ceasefire.

The spokesman said the two top diplomats also agreed to continue working with economic and investment opportunities, “this will range from a successful outcome to a conflict in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that his country would not accept the outcome of any negotiations without Kiev's participation.

President Trump said earlier this month that he and Putin agreed on the phone to start negotiations on the war, which has boosted U.S. policies to Ukraine and Russia, which has made many Ukrainians feel betrayed because they seem to have no say in the matter.

Rubio accompanied U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, while Lavrov sat on Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Usa Next to Yuri Ushakov.

Negotiations mark a significant expansion of US-Russian contacts in nearly three years of a war, which has seen relations drop to its lowest levels in decades.

“The economic aspect of discussion”

According to Russians, to show how Russia has discussed with the Trump administration, senior Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev is a Western-educated banker who is now in charge of the investments created by the government, according to Russians Fund, he also participated in the negotiations on Tuesday. media.

Before the talks in Riyadh, Dmitriev quoted Dmitriev as saying: “I will be responsible for the economic aspects of the discussion.” He said: “We are speaking out for the first time now.” The figure is that we lost more than $300 billion after leaving the Russian market.”

“Looking for a joint economic path, a positive solution to the problem, is mainly important for the United States and many other countries to begin to understand the Russian market is very attractive and necessary to emerge,” he said, adding that he hopes to “positively” dialogue”.

“We see President Trump is very active in solving a large number of problems in the world, and we hope the position of the Russian Federation can be clearly heard and the dialogue will continue,” Dmitryev said.

Dmitriev studied at Stanford and Harvard before working early in his career at Goldman Sachs, before having previously worked in Moscow and Washington during Mr. Trump's tenure He has served as an interlocutor.

Ukrainians, Europeans occupy the conversation

The U.S.'s recent diplomatic blitzkrieg against the war Send Kyiv and key allies scramble to make sure the table sits on the table There are concerns that Washington and Moscow may reach an agreement that is against them in advance.

France convened an emergency meeting between EU countries and the UK on Monday to decide how to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that he spoke to Mr. Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone after the meeting.

Macron wrote on X: “We seek strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end the aggression, which must be accompanied by strong and reliable security assurances of the Ukrainians,” he vowed to vow. “Work with all Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians.”

Prior to that meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Said for the first time on Monday Britain could deploy its troops to Ukraine to help ensure ultimate peace. Sweden also expressed its willingness to deploy its troops to Ukraine to maintain peace.

Although other European powers refused to make clear commitments and instead raised discussions about deploying peacekeeping personnel to Ukraine as premature birth, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk ruled out sending Polish troops to neighboring countries.

Prior to the French conference, Tusk did stress that European powers should immediately spend more on defense.

“If we now, Europeans don't spend a lot of time on defense now, then if we don't prevent a wider war, we'll be forced to spend 10 times.”

To enhance the “Saudi Arabia's status”?

Before the talks in Riyadh, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who may join the meeting, emphasized their importance in their comments to the Associated Press.

“Good U.S.-Russia relations are very important to the world. Only Russia and the United States work together to resolve many world problems, resolve global conflicts and provide solutions,” Dmitriev said. .

Saudi Arabian satellite channel Al Arabiya cited the Russian delegation's justification, saying Moscow's priority was “true normalization with Washington.”

Diriyah Palace sat opposite Riyadh's diplomatic district. It is also next to the Ritz Carlton Hotel, which has been detained by de facto leader Mohammed Bin Salman, and has detained other princes and the country's elites. He was famous in 2017 to control the Kingdom.

Presided over the negotiations was an important step in the goal that Prince Mehamud pursued throughout the war, putting the kingdom in diplomatic negotiations. Saudi Arabia assisted prisoners negotiations and held Zelenskyy in the Kingdom in 2023 for the Arab League summit. Zelenskyy may travel to Saudi Arabia later this week.

For Prince Mohammed, once described by former President Joe Biden as 2018 Jamal Khashoggi, a reporter from The Washington Postpresided over such a conversation, discolored the West's original image of the ironic one he possessed.

Before the summit, Saudi Daily Okaz described the moment as “a world vision about Riyadh.”

Written in the London-but Saudi Arabian-owned newspaper Asharq al Awsat, journalist Mishari al-Dhaidi described the summit as an “important step in the international political chess arena, revealing the status of Saudi Arabia and its positive impact on all people. ”

The prince also maintained close ties with Russia throughout the Ukrainian war through OPEC + oil cartel and diplomatic Russia.

Hosting the summit also balanced the country's recent harsh criticism of Mr. Trump's strict media expropriation as he repeatedly commented on his desire for the United States to “own” the Gaza Strip, which was damaging by Israeli military offensives, because On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked. Palestinians want a future state of Gaza and the West Bank, which is supported by the wider Arab world and almost all international community.