Russia praised the first round of the Ukrainian War as “very useful” with the US, with the US delegation both “promising to ensure that the process moves forward in a timely and productive way. said he would work towards the presidential meeting. Soon.
Secretary of State Marko Rubio met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since Russia invaded Ukraine about three years ago in 2022. The meeting said it was broken, and both sides have something to do with it feeling productive.
In terms of normalizing diplomatic relations between Russia and the US, both sides are said to have agreed to return to embassies staffing in their respective countries.
One of the intended outcomes of the consultations was to lay the foundation for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the actual war end negotiation process. There was no date for that meeting, but it was said that work was going on to make it possible.
Yury Ushakov, who sat around the table with President Putin and Rubio and Lavrov, an advisor to former Russian US ambassador, said that Trump and Putin will likely not meet next week after leaving the meeting, but both In the end, I said I wanted to meet. He states: “There's a lot to do with the delegations of both countries. We're ready for this, but it's still difficult to talk about a specific date of the meeting between the two leaders… the problem is It was discussed. We are formulating the conditions for this meeting.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (R), and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkov are in the foreign policy advisory of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin with Yuri Ushakov and Dyriya. After meeting, I attended an interview on February 18, 2025, a palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP) (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
He said the meeting “got it” and “were serious conversations about all the issues,” but Ushakov said that if the views between the US and Russia had been converged up to now, ” It's difficult to say.”
The US delegation also thwarted hopes for a rapid end to consultations and made it clear that there was much work to be done. Mission Leader Rubio said that the discussion was “the first step in a long and difficult journey” and that “for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict must be fine with it, it will be accepted by them He emphasized that it must be done.”
One of the main features of the discussions on previous lectures is the obvious upset felt in the European capital, and they are not included in today's discussion. Ukraine has gone to the point that they will ignore peace deals that were not involved in the negotiations. Perhaps with this in mind, Rubio threw his bones into the European political class, saying they would be invited to the table when the time is right.
“There are other political parties that have been sanctioned. The European Union has to be at the table at some point because there are also sanctions imposed,” he said.
Participating in the talks, Russia had set the first position in a fierce battle to not consider abandoning Ukrainian territory. However, Mike Waltz, sitting by Rubio at today's meeting, saw this as a mere place to negotiate, making it clear that Russia would inevitably withdraw from parts of Ukraine.
“We're just a practical reality, there's a territorial debate, there's a security assurance debate,” Waltz continues. of discussion. ”
Waltz also spoke happy for European partners, but if European states wanted a place at the top table, they simply had to do more to contribute to the NATO Alliance This was relieved by warning that it would not. He states: And we literally kept reminding everyone within minutes of President Trump wandering around with Putin, and he called [and] I spoke with President Zelensky. ”
However, he reminded Europe that many of the countries do not meet NATO with a defense of at least 2% or more of GDP, he continued.
The fact that a third of NATO allies have yet to contribute a minimum of 2% of GDP is not contributing to the defense 10 years after we have given that agreement
…This is a common effort. This isn't just about what the US will continue to contribute and what we are trying to continue asking American taxpayers. We all have to make these tough decisions.
We all have to contribute to our common defense. This is a two-way street for European allies, and we hope for the fact that both the UK, France and others are talking about a powerful contribution to Ukraine's security. I think it's a good thing.
Russia also says that it is pointless to include them in peace talks as the European Union is so deadly in continuing the war. In fact, as consultations progressed, the Russian vice minister spoke in Moscow and said he believed that the purpose of Europe's true war in support of Ukraine was to “submit a strategic defeat against Russia.”
He also said Russia is against it. European Plan Moscow said it would consider this an escalator to deploy NATO soldiers as peacekeepers to Ukraine.
