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 could be essentially the most significant meeting between the edges since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly three years ago.
The talks, scheduled for Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, mark one other consequential step by the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy on isolating Russia, and are supposed to pave the best way for a gathering between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The moves have sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to make sure a seat on 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 determine how you can 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 within 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 won’t participate.
Peskov said the talks will probably be primarily focused on “restoring all the complex of U.S.-Russian relations, in addition to preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organizing a gathering of the 2 presidents.”
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Witkoff said he and Waltz will probably be “having meetings on the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”
Witkoff didn’t directly reply to an issue about whether Ukraine would have to present up a “good portion” of its territory as a 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 major expansion of U.S.-Russian contacts, nearly three years right into a war that has seen ties fall to the bottom level in a long time. 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 extraordinary tensions on the time. In the autumn 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 by which the American president said they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” The decision upended years of U.S. policy, ending the isolation of Moscow over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. After the decision, Trump phoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to tell him about their conversation.
Trump on Sunday told reporters that Zelenskyy “will probably be involved” but didn’t elaborate. Zelenskyy said Monday his country had not been invited to the upcoming talks and won’t accept the end result if Ukraine doesn’t participate.
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 isn’t a possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly “until we develop a plan” to finish the war and convey a couple of “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 must be present on the negotiations.
Lavrov on Monday was dismissive when asked a couple of possible role for Europe, saying that “I don’t know what they must do on 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 desired 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 feel after he goes back to the US we could have an understanding on after I could have a gathering with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy said the potential of opening up his country’s mineral resources to the U.S., as Trump has suggested, would want to come back with a written agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine. Ukraine and several other European countries have insisted that without security guarantees, Russia could invade the country again, even when 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’s complicated and will take years.
–Spike reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Hatton from Lisbon, Portugal.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
