UPDATED 8:38 A.M.
RIYADH (Reuters) – The United States and Russia agreed in Riyadh on Tuesday to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official said, as Kyiv and its European allies watched anxiously from the sidelines and Moscow raised a major new demand.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the two sides agreed to appoint “respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides”.
Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov told reporters after more than four hours of talks: “It was a very serious conversation on all the questions we wanted to touch upon.”
Ukraine and European leaders are worried that President Donald Trump could cut a hasty deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that ignores their security interests, rewards Moscow for its invasion and leaves Putin free to threaten Ukraine or other countries in the future.
Even while the meeting in the Saudi capital was under way, Russia signalled a hardening of its demands.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow it was “not enough” for NATO not to admit Ukraine as a member. She said the alliance must go further by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would join at a future, unspecified date.
“Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent,” she said. There was no immediate response from Ukraine, NATO members or the United States.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has consistently demanded NATO membership as the only way to guarantee Kyiv’s sovereignty and independence from its nuclear-armed neighbour.
U.S. spokesperson Bruce said in a statement: “President Trump wants to stop the killing; the United States wants peace and is using its strength in the world to bring countries together. President Trump is the only leader in the world who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to that.”
She said the two sides had also agreed to consult in order to address “irritants” in their bilateral relations, which the Kremlin described as “below zero” during the previous U.S. administration of Joe Biden.
Ushakov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying conditions were discussed for a meeting between Trump and Putin, although he said it was unlikely to happen next week.
The talks in Saudi Arabia, which has friendly ties with both countries, underscored the rapid pace of U.S. efforts to halt the war, less than a month after Trump took office and six days after he spoke by phone to Putin.
Critics say that Trump’s team, by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and saying that Kyiv’s desire to win back all its lost territory is an illusion, has made major concessions in advance. U.S. officials say they are simply recognising reality.
Ukraine says no peace deal can be done on its behalf. “We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Zelenskiy said last week.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Riyadh and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry)
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RIYADH (Reuters) -U.S. and Russian officials met on Tuesday in Riyadh for their first talks on ending the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv and its European allies watched anxiously from the sidelines.
The talks in the Saudi capital underscored the rapid pace of U.S. efforts to halt the conflict, less than a month after President Donald Trump took office and six days after he spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Ukraine and European leaders are worried that Trump could cut a hasty deal with Moscow that ignores their security interests, rewards Russia for invading its neighbour and leaves Putin free to threaten Ukraine or other countries in the future.
Critics say that Trump’s team, by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and saying that Kyiv’s desire to win back all its lost territory is an illusion, has made major concessions in advance. U.S. officials say they are simply recognising reality.
Ukraine says no peace deal can be made on its behalf. “We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week.
The Riyadh talks pit three U.S. officials in the first month of their jobs – Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff – against Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in office since 2004, and veteran Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.
Media were allowed to film the two delegations, seated on opposite sides of a polished wooden table with large white floral arrangements.
The officials ignored shouted questions from reporters asking whether the U.S. was sidelining the Ukrainians and what concessions Washington was demanding of Moscow.
The Kremlin said the Riyadh talks may bring clarity on a possible meeting between Trump and Putin, which both men have said they are keen to hold.
RUSSIA AND US THAW FROZEN TIES WHILE UKRAINE LOOKS ON
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, eight years after seizing Crimea and fomenting an insurgency in the east of the country. It now controls about a fifth of the country.
Trump ran for president last year on an oft-repeated promise to end the conflict within 24 hours, though his officials now concede it will take months. He has described the war as “ridiculous” and said that it is “destroying” Russia.
Moscow, however, has sounded increasingly confident in recent months as its troops have advanced at their fastest pace since 2022 and Trump’s overtures have ended its near-total isolation from the West. Under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the Kremlin had described relations as “below zero”.
U.S. officials cast Tuesday’s talks as an initial contact to determine whether Moscow is serious about ending the war, after Putin and Trump spoke last Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that “President Putin has been repeating his words about his readiness for peace talks from the very beginning”.
But he also said any agreement with Ukraine would have to take into account a possible challenge to the legitimacy of Zelenskiy, who has remained in power beyond the end of his normal term because Ukraine is under martial law.
The Kremlin had suggested the discussions would cover “the entire complex of Russian-American relations”.
Putin and Trump have said that, apart from the war, they are keen to discuss issues such as nuclear arms control and how to bring down global energy prices.
Under Biden, the United States provided many tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and aid to Ukraine and joined other Western governments in slapping waves of sanctions on Russia.
Moscow says it has withstood the sanctions and that they have rebounded on those who imposed them.
“U.S. businesses lost around $300 billion from leaving Russia. So there is huge economic toll on many countries from, you know, what’s happening right now,” Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, told reporters in Riyadh.
Russia said Lavrov and Rubio in a call on Saturday discussed removing barriers to trade and investment.
EUROPE SEEKS TO RETAIN INFLUENCE AS US AND RUSSIA TALK
It remains unclear how Europe will engage Washington after Trump stunned Ukraine and European allies by bringing Putin in from the cold.
European leaders holding emergency talks on Monday called for higher spending to ramp up the continent’s defence capabilities but remained split on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine.
The leaders also agreed it would be dangerous to conclude a Ukraine ceasefire without a peace agreement at the same time, and that they were ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine “depending on the level of American support”, a European official said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who before the meeting said he was willing to send peacekeeping troops, said on Monday there must be a U.S. security “backstop” for European countries to put boots on the ground.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, said he would visit Ukraine from Wednesday and was asked if the U.S. would provide a security guarantee for any European peacekeepers.
“I’ve been with President Trump, and the policy has always been: You take no options off the table,” he said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Simon Lewis, Michael Georgy and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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