U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban, the Russian president’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a meeting together at Riyadh’s Diriyah Palace on February 18, 2025.
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Russian and U.S. officials ended their first formal meeting in years on Tuesday, after more than four hours of laying the groundwork for talks to end the war in Ukraine.
The meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began earlier Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia and marked the first formal sit-down meeting between top U.S. and Russian diplomats since January 2022, when then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lavrov met in Geneva just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz participated in the talks, while Lavrov was accompanied by Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov, according to Russian state media.
Ushakov told Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti that separate teams of Russian and U.S. negotiators will begin contact on Ukraine in due time, according to comments translated by NBC News.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement Tuesday that “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.”
The high-profile meeting comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that he had called Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the leaders had agreed to start negotiations to end the three-year war in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Policy Advisor Yuri Ushakov (2nd L) arrive for a meeting between Russia and the United States aimed at improving relations between the two nations and addressing the conflict in Ukraine, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 18 February 2025.
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Both sides had played down the potential outcome of this first meeting; State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Monday that the Riyadh meeting was designed to “determine if the Russians perhaps are serious, and if they’re on the same page.”
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the meeting was to discuss restoring bilateral relations and “preparations for potential Ukraine peace talks.”
On Tuesday, the spokesman said that Putin was prepared to talk to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “if necessary,” but said that “the legal basis of agreements needs discussion considering the reality that Zelenskyy’s legitimacy can be questioned.”
Russia has downplayed Zelenskyy’s legitimacy due to martial law preventing new elections in the country but Kyiv says it’s impracticable to hold a ballot during wartime.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio (L) meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (R) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17, 2025.
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Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was also a part of the Russian delegation in Riyadh with his presence signalling that Moscow was keen to emphasize the economic benefits of restoring ties.
Speaking to Russian media outlets early Tuesday, Dmitriev estimated that “U.S. businesses lost around $300 billion from leaving Russia” and said there was a “huge economic toll on many countries from what’s happening right now, and we believe a way forward is through solutions,” he said, according to a news agency Interfax report.
Ukraine and Europe frozen out
Officials from Ukraine were not present at the talks in Riyadh and European allies have also been frozen out of the discussions for now.
Kyiv’s leadership has said it will not agree to any peace deal that goes against its interests, while European leaders warned at the Munich Security Conference last weekend that any agreement made without its involvement would not work.
European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday where they agreed on the need to sharply increase defense spending but could not agree on whether to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine as part of a post-war plan.
The U.K. has said it is willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine but said the U.S. would need to provide a “backstop” to support the deployment, while Denmark and France signaled a willingness to consider sending troops to the country.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a meeting on security issues in Europe at the Elysée Palace on Feb. 17, 2025, in Paris.
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Other nations, including some of Ukraine’s biggest backers, Poland and Germany, are wary, however. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was openly critical of the idea, calling it “completely premature” and “highly inappropriate” while the leaders of Italy, Spain and Norway appeared to be more cynical about the idea.
Anxious to remain close to President Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to meet the president next week, while French President Emmanuel Macron said he’d spoken to Trump and Zelenskyy after the emergency summit.
“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians. Otherwise, there is a risk that this ceasefire will end up like the Minsk agreements. We will work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians. This is the key,” Macron said on social media platform X.
