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In a bid to explore potential pathways to ending the war in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to engage in talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days, U.S. officials have confirmed. The discussions are expected to address key points of contention in the prolonged conflict.
As diplomatic talks on Ukraine take shape, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be joined by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, according to officials speaking to CBS News. U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, disclosed that while the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine are involved in the negotiations, European nations were not extended an invitation.
Kyiv’s exclusion from upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia, confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has sparked unease in Europe, where leaders fear the U.S. may be forging a path toward peace with Russia without their involvement. In response, Ukraine’s European allies have scheduled an emergency summit in Paris next week to coordinate their next steps.
Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine, remarked on Saturday that previous peace efforts had faltered because of the excessive number of stakeholders, implying that a more focused dialogue might improve the chances of a resolution.
“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” the US diplomat added.
Also on Saturday, Rubio spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, where he reaffirmed US President Donald Trump’s “commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine”, according to state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. It followed a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, when the White House shocked its European allies by reviving direct contact with Moscow after a freeze of more than three years.
Read also: Russia-Ukraine War Could Have Been Averted With Trump — Putin
After the call, Trump said negotiations to stop the “ridiculous war” in Ukraine would begin “immediately”. The upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia follow tensions at the international Munich Security Conference, where US Vice President JD Vance sharply criticised European democracies on Friday.
Vance repeated the Trump administration’s line that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”.
On Wednesday US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to rule out Ukraine joining Nato or recovering all of its territory – fuelling European alarm that the US may be making concessions to Russia before any peace deal is negotiated.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, having already seized Crimea and part of the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Addressing the Munich conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the creation of an “army of Europe” amid rising concern that Washington may no longer come to the continent’s aid.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” Zelensky said.
