United States and Russian officials held their first formal meeting in years for talks on how to end the war in Ukraine.
Present at the meeting were U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. There were no Ukrainian officials at the meeting in Riyadh, and European allies were currently frozen out of the discussion.
The U.S. and Russia said they would appoint high-level teams to end the war in Ukraine and are working to re-establish diplomatic channels.
During the meeting, Rubio said they agreed upon four important principles to end the conflict.
U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who was also present at the meeting, said they are looking forward to the best way to ensure ongoing peace in the two countries.
“This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past,” he said.
“We know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory, and there is going to be a discussion of security guarantees.”
In the past, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously stated that he wouldn’t agree to any deals made over his head. Both Zelensky and other European officials have discussed the possibility of contributing peacekeepers to any Ukraine peace deal.
Both U.S. and Russian officials have rejected the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. Most recently, Lavrov said he won’t accept any of the proposed peacekeeping forces from NATO countries under any peace deal.
"Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything,” Lavrov said.
“It is of course completely unacceptable.”
A former U.S. ambassador under former president Barack Obama, Michael McFaul, posted to X that he sees “zero evidence” that Putin is willing to give up anything during negotiations.
“All I see instead are ideas floated by the US of concessions that Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. are supposed to make,” he said.
Waltz made it clear that the U.S. plans to talk with both Ukraine and Russia to ensure peace.
“We are absolutely talking to both sides,” he said.
“The Secretary of State just met with President Zelenskyy days ago, along with the Vice President, seven Cabinet members in Europe at the same time – really showing the importance of engaging our allies.”
