Senior American and Russian officials, including the countries’ top diplomats, will hold talks on improving their ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Monday, in what would be the most significant meeting between the sides since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly three years ago.
The talks, scheduled for Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, mark another consequential step by the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy on isolating Russia, and are meant to pave the way for a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The moves have 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 address the U.S. diplomatic blitz on the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov will fly to the Saudi capital later in the day. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the Russian delegation, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. Ukraine will not participate.
Peskov said the talks will be primarily focused on “restoring the entire complex of U.S.-Russian relations, as well as preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organizing a meeting of the two presidents.”
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Witkoff said he and Waltz will be “having meetings at the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”
Witkoff didn’t directly respond to a question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory as part of any negotiated settlement. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia — two key items on Putin’s wish list.
The talks would mark a significant expansion of U.S.-Russian contacts, nearly three years into a war that has seen ties fall to the lowest level in decades. 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. They chatted for about 10 minutes, and there was no indication of any movement toward easing the intense tensions at the time. In the fall of 2022, U.S. and Russian spymasters met in Turkey.
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Tuesday’s talks follow last week’s telephone call between Trump and Putin in which the American president said they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” The call upended years of U.S. policy, ending the isolation of Moscow over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. After the call, Trump phoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to inform him about their conversation.
Trump on Sunday told reporters that Zelenskyy “will be involved” but did not elaborate. Zelenskyy said Monday his country had not been invited to the upcoming talks and won’t accept the outcome if Ukraine doesn’t take part.
The U.S.-Russia talks would “yield no results,” given the absence of any Ukrainian officials, Zelenskyy said on a conference call with journalists from the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine’s participation in any peace talks had been a bedrock of U.S. policy under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
Zelenskyy said he would travel to Turkey on Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip to the Arab nation was unrelated to the U.S.-Russia talks. Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser, has said there is no possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly “until we develop a plan” to end the war and bring about a “just peace.”
EU officials have pushed for the bloc — which aloing with the U.S. has staunchly supported Kyiv — to have a say in any Ukraine peace talks, and Zelenskyy and his officials also insisted that Europe needs to be present at the negotiations.
Lavrov on Monday was dismissive when asked about a possible role for Europe, saying that “I don’t know what they have to do at the negotiations table.”
Zelenskyy also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, would arrive in Kyiv on Feb. 20 for “broad conversations about security guarantees.”
Zelenskyy said he wanted to bring Kellogg to the front line and hoped the American would take what he learned from his Ukraine trip back to the White House, adding: “I think after he goes back to the United States we will have an understanding on when I will have a meeting with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy said the possibility of opening up his country’s mineral resources to the U.S., as Trump has suggested, would need to come with a written agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine. Ukraine and several European countries have insisted that without security guarantees, Russia could invade the country again, even if a settlement is reached.
Those guarantees could include NATO membership, which Hegseth poured cold water on, weapons and economic support, Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has also expressed hopes of joining the EU, but that is complicated and could take years.
–Spike reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Hatton from Lisbon, Portugal.
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