The U.S. kicked off talks to end the war in Ukraine with Russian officials, but whether a deal can materialize remains to be seen amid questions over Ukraine’s involvement in the negotiations process.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, aide to President Putin, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
It was the first round of talks as the U.S. under President Trump looks to broker a peace deal to the war that has been raging since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
It came after Trump spoke with Putin last week as the U.S. moves away from isolating Russia, but Ukrainian representatives were not present for the sit-down in the Middle East.
Rubio said they would not pre-negotiate and it would involve ‘hard and difficult diplomacy’ over a period of time, but he claimed only Trump could facilitate an end to the war.
‘The only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even bring people together to begin to talk about it in a serious way is President Trump,’ the secretary of state said.
Rubio also said that ‘in order for the conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be ok with it.’
He noted it has been more than three years since there was any ‘regularized’ contact between the U.S. and Russia.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio (center), National Security Adviser Mike Waltz (right) and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff (left) meeting with senior Russian officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 18
Rubio said that the U.S. and Russians agreed on four principles during their meeting.
First, he said the U.S. and Moscow will work to reestablish their ‘missions’ in both countries so they can move forward with diplomatic relations.
Rubio also said the U.S. will appoint a high-level team to help negotiate and will begin to discuss a geopolitical and economic cooperation that could help resolve the conflict.
He also said that the five people who were involved in the first meeting will remain engaged, so they know it is moving along ‘in a productive way.’
Waltz said they discussed that it needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary pause.
He said there will be discussion of territory as well as security guarantees which will underly any talks that they have.
However, Waltz would not say whether there the U.S. would agree to Russia retaining any Ukrainian territory it had annexed since it invaded three years ago, only that it was to be discussed.
‘What the president did not find acceptable was an endless war in Europe that was literally turning into, has turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides,’ Waltz said.
An image of the senior U.S. officials meeting with Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov (second from right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (far right) provided by the Russian Foreign Ministry
It comes less than a week after Trump and Putin spoke by phone. The president also spoke with Zelensky by phone he revealed.
Zelensky signaled Ukraine could see the war coming to an end, but he has been pushing for security guarantees as part of the peace process with the U.S. and other European leaders at the table.
Zelensky responded to the talks between the U.S. and Russia on Tuesday from Ankara, Turkey where he is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said Ukraine will not ‘give in to Russia’s ultimatums.’
The president of Turkey also said his country would be an ‘ideal host’ for talks between Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. in the future.
On Monday, Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine and European leaders were not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia and said Ukraine cannot recognize any peace agreement without its participation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on February 18
European leaders meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 17
Although they were also not at the table in Riyadh, other European leaders have also engaging in discussions of a peace deal.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron met with other European leaders in Paris where they addressed the war in Ukraine. The meeting took place after Macron spoke with Trump. He also had a call with Zelensky.
Macron said the leaders want 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. Otherwise, there is a risk that this ceasefire will end up like the Minsk agreements,’ Macron said in a statement.
He signaled the Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians would all work in it and that European countries would invest more in their security and defense.
