Trump, Putin meeting is on the cards as Kremlin prepares for a sit down after Riyadh talks

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov revealed that preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as both nations discuss the end of the ongoing war in Ukraine. While speaking to Russian state media Ryabkov said that a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just Ukraine.

This marks a dramatic shift away from from US’s stance on the war, ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” the Russian diplomat told the state media.

He insisted that the efforts to organise such a meeting are at an extremely early stage and that making it happen would require “the most intensive preparatory work”. Ryabkov went on to maintain that American and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials, Tass reported.

On Tuesday, representatives from Russia and the United States agreed to start working towards ending the raging war in Ukraine and improving the diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations. The high-level meeting took place in Saudi Arabia and marked a major about-face in US foreign policy under Trump.

Three goals the US and Russia agreed on

After the meeting in Riyadh, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Associated Press that the delegations from both nations agreed on three broad goals. They are as follows:

1. To restore high-level staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow.

2. To create a high-level team to support the Ukraine peace talks.

3. To explore closer relationships and economic cooperation between Russia and the United States.

Rubio noted that the talks were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov , and other senior Russian and US officials. However, he insisted that more work needed to be done to bolster ties between the two nations. Meanwhile, Lavrov on his part said that the meeting turned out to be “very useful”.

It is pertinent to note that no Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting. As the ongoing war entered its fourth year, Ukraine was steadily losing ground against the mighty Russian troops. However, Kyiv has still managed to take a hit after its troops took over parts of the Kursk region.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that his country would not accept any outcome of the talks since Kyiv wasn’t involved in the meeting. Not only this, he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia , which was scheduled to take place last Wednesday. In the midst of all this, Ukraine’s European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined from negotiations.

With inputs from agencies.