Top Russian, US officials meet in Saudi Arabia to begin talks on Ukraine war without officials from Kyiv
Senior Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss improving relations and an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine – without representatives from Kyiv.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov led the delegations that met at the Diriyah Palace in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh. Rubio was accompanied by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Lavrov brought along the Kremlin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and National Security Advisor Musaed al Alban were present for the start of the meeting but were expected to leave early in the talks.
The meeting symbolizes another significant step by the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy on isolating Russia. The event was meant to lead to a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as Trump has stated they agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war.
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Ukrainian officials are not participating in Tuesday’s meeting and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Kyiv will not accept the outcome if his country is not in attendance for the talks.
Ushakov said Monday the talks would be “purely bilateral” and would not include Ukrainian officials.
Former defense intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler said on “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday morning that Zelenskyy was not included in the meeting, despite Trump saying he would be, because he is “irrelevant” as “his presidency expired in May” and Putin stated that Russia would “only negotiate with some legitimate authority.”
Koffler also said Trump’s goal is “bring peace to Ukraine” as it has been “obliterated” during the war, but negotiations are very complicated as former President Joe Biden’s administration “eroded” Trump’s position.
“President Trump appointed some really heavy weights and they are going to play a very strategic game,” Koffler said.
The talks mark a significant expansion of Russian-U.S. contacts nearly three years into Russia’s war against Ukraine, during which time relations between Moscow and Washington had dipped to the lowest in decades.
Nearly two years ago, Lavrov and then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India. And in the fall of 2022, U.S. and Russian spymasters met in Turkey to address concerns that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in the war.
Before the meeting, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund who the Kremlin said might be in attendance, discussed the importance of the talks.
“Good U.S.-Russia relations are very important for the whole world,” he told The Associated Press. “Only jointly can Russia and the U.S. address lots of world problems, resolve for global conflicts and offer solutions.”
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The recent U.S. diplomatic efforts regarding the war have sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Russia and the U.S. could move ahead with a deal that they would not support.
France on Monday called an emergency meeting of European Union countries and the U.K. to determine how to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke on the phone with Trump and Zelenskyy following the meeting.
“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” Macron wrote on X, adding that he vowed to “work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.