Russia-US talks: Senior Russian and US officials are set to meet for high-stakes talks on mending bilateral ties to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine, and preparing for a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, the Kremlin announced on Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov will travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, later in the day for the talks scheduled on Tuesday (February 18). Leading the US delegation will be Secretary of State Marco Rubio, joined by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz, as confirmed by Witkoff in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
Peskov said the talks will be primarily focused on “restoring the entire complex of US-Russian relations, as well as preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organising a meeting of the two presidents.”
Zelenskyy’s remarks on US-Russia talks
Speaking to the media on a conference call from the United Arab Emirates on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country will take part in the talks this week, adding that they would “yield no results,” given the absence of any Ukrainian officials.
The talks follow last week’s telephone call between Trump and Putin in which Trump said they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” The call upended years of US policy, ending the isolation of Moscow over its February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. After the call with Putin, Trump phoned Zelenskyy to inform him about their conversation.
Trump’s remarks on Zelenkyy’s participation
Trump on Sunday told reporters that Zelenskyy “will be involved,” but did not elaborate. Zelenskyy said he would travel to Turkey on Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip to the Arab nation was unrelated to planned US-Russia talks there on Tuesday. Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser, said earlier Sunday there was no possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly in the immediate future. In a Telegram post, Yermak said the Ukrainians weren’t planning to do so “until we develop a plan” to end the war and bring about a “just peace.”
(With inputs from AP)
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