The high -level delegations of the United States and Russia held conversations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday about the destination of Ukraine, the negotiations that take place without kyiv’s participation.
The State Department said the conversations aimed to discuss the end of the three -year war, which began with the large -scale invasion of Russia of its neighbor in 2022 and followed the sustained cross -border aggression of Moscow since 2014.
Tuesday’s meeting in Riad concluded after about five hours, according to the press group that covered the meeting, and the State Department said the discussions represented “an important step forward” towards “lasting peace.”
The conversations between Moscow and Washington end a period of about three years, since President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Geneva before Russia invaded Ukraine, without the higher level commitment between the two nations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan al Saud, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad Bin Mohammad al-Aiban, National Security Advisor of the United States Mike Waltz, Media Invertencio this Steve Witkoff, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Law, and the foreign policy advisor of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, in the Diriyah Palace, in Riad, Saudi Arabia, February 17, February 17 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Pool through AP
The American team was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the envoy of Middle East Steve Witkoff and national security advisor Michael Waltz. The Russian negotiation delegation included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Sovereign Fund of Russia’s wealth.
The spokesman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said that the American team agreed to establish “a consultation mechanism to address irritating with our bilateral relationship with the aim of taking necessary measures to normalize the functioning of our respective diplomatic missions.”
The two parties also agreed to name “high -level teams to start working on a way to finish the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a lasting, sustainable and acceptable way for all sides,” Bruce said, in addition to “Lay the Base for future cooperation in matters of mutual geopolitical interest and economic opportunities and historical inverters that will arise from a successful purpose to the conflict in Ukraine. “
“The parts of today’s meetings undertake to stay committed to ensure that the process advances in a timely and productive way,” Bruce added.
Lavrov and Rubio spoke on the phone on Saturday, according to the State Department, after a conversation between Putin and President Donald Trump last week.
While a Putin spokesman said the meeting would be “dedicated” mainly to “restore the entire range of American Russian relations,” Bruce said the meeting would focus more on the “biggest problem in Ukraine.”
After the Trump-Poutin conversation, Bruce called the “second step to determine if the Russians are perhaps serious, and if they are on the same page.”
Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, on February 17, 2025 and President Donald Trump, in Washington, on February 11, 2025.
Reuters/AFP through Getty Images
Ukraine ‘will not recognize’ the agreement reached without him
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was not invited to the meeting. Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukraine “cannot recognize any … agreements about us without us, and will not recognize such agreements.”
“Previously, during the war, taboo were considered to talk to the aggressor,” said the Ukrainian president.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Putin is prepared for negotiations with Zelenskyy “if necessary,” although he again questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President. Putin and his officials have repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the delay to the Ukrainian presidential elections necessary by martial law.
In the midst of the gust of diplomatic activity, French president Emmanuel Macron convened a meeting of European government leaders in Paris on Monday before the United States commitment.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the media during an informative session at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Plant, Ukraine on February 13, 2025.
Alex Babenko/AP
Macron and Trump spoke on the phone for almost 30 minutes before the European meeting, said a White House official. The official called the “friendly” conversation and said that he included the discussion of the war in Ukraine and the bilateral meetings of the United States and Russia on Tuesday.
Mike Waltz, the White House National Security Advisor, said Sunday that “would go back … any notion that [Ukrainians] They are not consulting. “
“Absolutely they are. And at the end of the day, however, this will be under the leadership of President Trump that we have an end to this war,” said Waltz, admitting “that they do not like some of the sequencing that goes in these negotiations “.
Zelenskyy himself was in the Middle East, where he met with officials at the United Arab Emirates on Monday, with Tuesday meetings scheduled in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. Zelenskyy said he would ask the Saudi de facto leader and the crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman about the meetings of the United States and Russia when he was in Riyadh.
The opening of the conversations provided by the White House about La Paz in Ukraine occurred after Trump officials indicated potential terms for an agreement before and during the Munich security conference in Germany last week.
Before the conference, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called a return to the Ukrainian borders before Russia’s invasion in 2014 “unrealistic” Crimea. That “illusory objective”, and the NATO membership for Ukraine, would not be promoted by the United States, said the secretary.
Zelenskyy told Munich attendees that Ukraine must be assured of being a “NATO member, or a reliable alternative.”
He asked for the construction of the “Armed Forces of Europe” when the Trump administration presses for more European expenses in defense.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Keir Starmer, when he arrives for a meeting with European leaders on the security of Ukraine and Europe at the Elísee Palace in Paris, France, on February 17, 2025 .
Abdul Saboor/Reuters
Among those attending the Macron meeting organized in Paris, the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Sweden said that they would be open to the taxpayers’ armed forces in the field in Ukraine in a capacity to maintain peace after a possible agreement.
“If there is a peace agreement [for Ukraine]And everyone wants a peace agreement, so it has to be a lasting peace agreement, not just a pause for Putin to return, “said the United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in Paris.
“There is also a broader piece here that is collective security and defense in Europe, and here, I think we have a generational challenge. We all have to step forward,” he added.
Molly Nagle, Patrick Reevell and Joe Simonetti of ABC News contributed to this report.
