By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
RYADH/ISTANBUL/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Top American and Russian officials who met in Saudi Arabia have agreed on planning to end the war in Ukraine and to work on normalizing diplomatic and economic relations.
After the most extensive talks between the two countries in three years, U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the two sides agreed to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks.
They also want to explore “economic and investment opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine” while restoring staffing at their embassies, Rubio explained after the meeting at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh.
Rubio said that actions over the last several years have reduced the ability of both countries’ diplomatic missions to operate. He said, “We’re going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to continue these conduits.”
His words came as a bolt from the blue for European leaders who appeared to have been sidelined by U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration despite an emergency European meeting on Ukraine in Paris, France.
After meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that “no decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine.” Zelenskyy added that he would always reject Putin’s “ultimatums.”
Yet, with more than 1 million people dead and wounded since Russia’s President Vladimir Putin launched a full scale of Ukraine in February 2022, patience is running thin within the Trump administration.
DIFFICULT JOURNEY
Rubio acknowledged that the talks were the “first step of a long and difficult journey,” a sharp departure from Trump’s previous rhetoric that he could end the war within 24 hours.
Yet there were some signs that Moscow may be ready for a peace deal soon, with a Putin adviser saying that the U.S.-Russia talks “went well.”
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Putin’s chief foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, were seen sitting across from Rubio, who attended the talks alongside the US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.
Shortly after the meeting, Ushakov said the talks had “gone well,” with both sides agreeing to allow negotiators to discuss Ukraine.
Ushakov added that a potential Putin-Trump summit was discussed, though he noted such a gathering was unlikely to happen next week.
However, the talks in the Saudi capital underscored the rapid pace of American efforts to halt the conflict, raising alarm in Kyiv and other European capitals where leaders discussed the possibility of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
Russia has rejected the idea of Western boots in Ukraine, with Lavrov saying in Riyadh that the deployment of NATO military alliance member troops in Ukraine, even if they were operating there under a different flag, was unacceptable.
NATO EXPANSION
“We explained to our colleagues today what President Putin has repeatedly stressed: that the expansion of NATO, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty,” Lavrov stressed
However, in a significant compromise, the Kremlin made clear it would not oppose Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. “With regard to Ukraine joining the EU, it is the sovereign right of any country… Nobody can dictate to another country, and we do not plan on dictating,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
“But it is completely different when it comes to security issues and military alliances [such as NATO]. Here, we have a different approach that is well known,” he added.
Lavrov also rejected a U.S. proposal that Russia and Ukraine halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. He claimed that Russia had never endangered Ukraine’s civilian energy supply system, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary: Over the weekend, tens of thousands of residents in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv woke up without heating after an apparent Russian drone attack on a power plant.
Zelenskyy said more than 100,000 people had been affected by the attack on Mykolaiv, where temperatures dropped to freezing. The municipality announced it opened shelters where people can warm up.
Worthy News reported earlier that Zelenskyy called the attack proof that Russia is not interested in peace. “This has nothing to do with the fighting and the situation on the front. This is not what those who really want peace and are preparing for negotiations do,” the Ukrainian leader said.
However, Trump has made clear he wants those talks and a negotiated settlement on Ukraine’s future by Easter.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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