Top U.S., Russian diplomats meet on improving ties, ending Ukraine war — without Ukraine officials at the table

Senior officials from the U.S. and Russia met in Saudi Arabia to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine -- without representatives form Kyiv at the table.
Top U.S., Russian diplomats meet on improving ties, ending Ukraine war — without Ukraine officials at the table

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What could result from U.S.-Russia talks?

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Senior officials from Russia and the U.S. met in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.

Delegations led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting marks another pivotal step by the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy on isolating Russia and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban, the Russian president's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting at Riyadh's Diriyah Palace on Feb. 18, 2025. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Trump earlier this month upended U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia by saying he and Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war.

Ukrainian officials aren't taking part in the meeting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that his country wouldn't accept the outcome if Kyiv isn't included in negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz at a meeting with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser and the Russian president's foreign policy adviser and the Russian foreign minister at Riyadh's Diriyah Palace on Feb.18, 2025. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Rubio was accompanied by U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Lavrov sat next to the Kremlin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and national security adviser Musaed al Alban joined Rubio, Lavrov and others for the start of the meeting but were expected to leave early in the talks.

Ushakov said Monday the talks would be "purely bilateral" and wouldn't include Ukrainian officials.

The talks mark a significant expansion of U.S.-Russian contacts nearly three years into a war that has seen relations fall to the lowest level in decades.

The Russian president's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting with the U.S. Middle East envoy, secretary of state and national security advisor, as well as Saudi Arabia's foreign minister and national security adviser at Riyadh's Diriyah Palace on Feb. 18, 2025. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India nearly two years ago, and in the fall of 2022, U.S. and Russian spymasters met in Turkey amid Washington's concerns that Moscow could resort to nuclear weapons amid battlefield setbacks.

Europeans gather as well  

The recent U.S. diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won't be favorable to them.

France called an emergency meeting of European Union countries and the U.K. on Monday to decide how to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he spoke by phone to Mr. Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy following the meeting.

"We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine," Macron wrote on X. "To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians," he said as he vowed to "work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians."

Before that meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said for the first time Monday that the U.K. could deploy troops to Ukraine to help secure an eventual peace. Sweden also indicated a willingness Monday to deploy forces to Ukraine to keep an eventual peace.

While other European powers declined to make explicit commitments, calling discussions about deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine premature, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk ruled out sending Polish troops to the neighboring nation.

Ahead of the meeting in France, Tusk did stress that European powers should immediately spend more on defense.

"If we, Europeans, fail to spend big on defense now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we don't prevent a wider war," Tusk said on social media.

Saudis try to assert themselves as mediators 

Ahead of the Riyadh talks, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund who the Kremlin said might join the meeting, underscored their importance in comments to The Associated Press.

"Good U.S.-Russia relations are very important for the whole world. Only jointly can Russia and the U.S. address lots of world problems, resolve for global conflicts and offer solutions," Dmitriev, who said he and his team would focus on economic issues at the talks, told the AP.

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya, citing the Russian delegation, described Moscow's priority as "real normalization with Washington."

Diriyah Palace sits across the street from Riyadh's Diplomatic Quarter. It's also just next to the Ritz Carlton hotel, which became famous in 2017 after de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman detained other princes and the country's elite there as part of what the royal court called a crackdown on corruption that also sidelined any potential challenge to his taking control of the kingdom.

Hosting the talks is a major step toward a goal Prince Mohammed has pursued throughout the war - putting the kingdom in the middle of diplomatic negotiations. The Saudis helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Zelenskyy for an Arab League summit in the kingdom in 2023. Zelenskyy likely will travel to Saudi Arabia later this week.

For Prince Mohammed, once described as a "pariah" by former President Joe Biden over the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hosting such talks burnish the otherwise-tarnished image the West has of him.

Ahead of the summit, the Saudi daily newspaper Okaz described the moment as the "world's eye on Riyadh."

Writing in the London-based but Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, journalist Mishari al-Dhaidi described the summit as "a major step on the international political chess arena, revealing the status of Saudi Arabia and its positive influence for the benefit of the people all the people."

The prince also has maintained close relations to Russia throughout its war on Ukraine, both through the OPEC+ oil cartel and diplomatically.

Hosting the summit also balances the harsh criticism recently levied by the kingdom's tightly controlled media at Mr. Trump over his repeated comments that he wants the U.S. to "own" the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the Israeli military offensive there since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, something backed by the wider Arab world and nearly all of the international community.

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