 "US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 18, 2025. Reuters")
Top diplomats from the United States and Russia met in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh on Tuesday (February 18), with Moscow describing the talks as “not bad”. The high-stakes discussion between the two countries came three years after frayed ties due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
American and Russian officials held talks for over four hours about improving relations and ending the war in Ukraine. While the US and Russia met, a major player was missing from the table — Ukraine, which along with Europe was not invited.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Ankara, holding talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace hours after the high-level discussions between the US and Russia.
What did the top diplomats from Russia and the US discuss? Where does Kyiv stand?
Let’s take a closer look.
No date for Trump-Putin summit
US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are “unlikely” to meet next week, Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the talks between the two countries’ officials.
Reuters reported citing Interfax news agency that Ushakov said conditions were discussed for a meeting between the leaders. “We have agreed that a separate team of negotiators will establish contact in due course,” he said, as per BBC.
Trump and Putin spoke on the phone last week, paving the way for Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia.
Ushakov, a Putin aide, said the discussions between the two nations “went well” and “it was a very serious conversation on all the questions we wanted to touch upon."
End Ukraine war
The US and Russian delegations have agreed to form high-level teams for talks on an end to the war in Ukraine “as soon as possible”.
According to the US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, the two sides decided to appoint “respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides”.
The US delegation said Ukraine talks would include discussions on territory and security guarantees.
“President Trump wants to stop the killing; the United States wants peace and is using its strength in the world to bring countries together. President Trump is the only leader in the world who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to that,” Bruce said in a statement, as per Reuters.
Putin has previously said that he is ready to speak to his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy “if necessary”. “If [Zelenskyy] wants to participate in the negotiations, I will send people to take part,” the Russian president said in a recent interview.
Improve US-Russia ties
Russia and the US have also agreed to build closer relations and economic cooperation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference that both sides will create conditions in full between the two nations for broader cooperation, including “resuming consultations on geopolitical issues,” and “removing the artificial barriers in the way of mutually beneficial economic cooperation.”
Describing the talks as “very useful,” Lavrov said they “did not just listen to each other, but heard each other.” He also said that the US and Russia agreed upon “the speediest possible” appointment of ambassadors to both countries and getting rid of the barriers that “for many years, and primarily the Biden administration in the last four years, erected between our diplomatic missions.”
US State Department spokesperson Bruce mentioned the two sides have decided to “address irritants to our bilateral relationship with the objective of taking steps necessary to normalise the operation of our respective diplomatic missions.”
“One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace. We must take action, and today we took an important step forward,” she said.
The relations between the US and Russia plunged after the Ukraine war, with America and European nations imposing sanctions on Moscow.
“Should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly, economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was present at the talks told Associated Press (AP) in an interview.
Not okay with Ukraine joining Nato, but…
Russia reiterated its opposition to Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance, calling it “completely unacceptable”.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that President Trump was the “first of Western leaders to say that dragging Ukraine into Nato was one of the main [reasons behind] what is happening, one of Biden’s biggest mistakes.”
“President Putin stressed more than once that Nato’s expansion and the absorption of Ukraine by Nato was a direct threat to the Russian Federation and our sovereignty. And we explained today that any appearance by armed forces from the Nato countries under some flag, under the European flag or under flags, doesn’t change anything.”
Russia also addressed the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU), with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that Moscow is not against Kyiv joining the bloc. “This is the sovereign right of any country. We are talking about integration and economic processes, and here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country. We’re not going to do that,” Peskov was quoted as saying by BBC.
“But our stance on matters related to security, defence or military alliances is completely different. There’s another issue there, and it’s well-known to everyone,” he added.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy has pushed for Nato membership as the only way to ensure Kyiv’s sovereignty and independence from Russia.
Include Ukraine, EU in peace talks
The US has insisted on involving Ukraine and the European Union (EU) in peace talks with Russia after not giving them a place in the Riyadh talks.
The US state secretary said that “for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it; it has to be acceptable to them.”
He said Tuesday’s meeting was “the first step of a long and difficult journey.”
Rubio said that “in order to bring an end to any conflict, there has to be concessions made by all sides,” but it would be wrong to “predetermine those.”
As per The Guardian, he also indicated a role for the EU in Ukraine peace talks in future, saying “there are other parties that have sanctions, the European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point, because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed.”
“The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved. What that looks like? Well, that’s what this what the ongoing engagement is going to be all about.”
What has Ukraine said?
Ukraine was not invited to the first talks between Russia and the US since the 2022 war.
Criticising the discussions, Zeleneskyy, who is in Turkey, pointed out the absence of any Ukrainian representative at the table.
He called for “fair” peace talks on Ukraine that should involve the European Union, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Zelenskyy had said last week.
Ukraine and EU allies worry the US and Russia would reach a deal without involving them.
Ukraine’s president who was to be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow has postponed his trip, hinting he does not want it to be linked to US-Russia talks, AP reported.
Russia-Ukraine war
The deadly war has killed thousands on both sides and led to nearly four million (40 lakh) internally displaced people in Ukraine.
Kyiv is slowly losing its advantage on the battlefield as the war continues to grind on.
Whether the US-Russia talks can end the nearly three-year-old conflict in Ukraine, only time will tell. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Erdogan has offered to host potential peace talks in his country between Russia, Ukraine and the US.
With inputs from agencies