Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would hold talks with top US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on Tuesday that will focus on ending the war in Ukraine and restoring broader Russia-US ties.
The talks will be among the first high-level, in-person discussions in years between Russian and US officials and are meant to precede a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rubio arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Monday on a previously planned trip. US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who were set to arrive later on Monday, will join him at the talks with Lavrov
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy advisor to Putin, would fly to Riyadh on Monday.
“They are expected to hold a meeting with their American counterparts on Tuesday, which will focus primarily on restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations,” Peskov said
The talks come after Trump last week spoke to Putin by phone and ordered top officials to begin negotiations on the war, which he repeatedly vowed to end during his presidential campaign.
Riyadh, which is also involved in talks with Washington over the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in early contacts between the Trump administration, which took office on January 20, and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week
Rubio, who spoke by phone with Lavrov on Saturday, said on Sunday that the coming weeks and days would determine whether Putin is serious about making peace.
Zelenskyy, however, reaffirmed that Ukraine would not accept any peace accords reached without its involvement. “Ukraine will not take part,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump's Ukraine envoy, said on Monday that no one would impose a peace deal on Kyiv and that questions about whether Washington would provide guarantees for any future European peacekeepers would be addressed later
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