CNN
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The United States and Russia will appoint high-level teams to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine and are working to reestablish diplomatic channels, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the end of key talks that excluded Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Rubio said “concessions” will have to be made by “all sides” in order for the conflict to end.
Even the fact that the talks were held at all was a major victory for Russia. The meeting marked the first time top-level US and Russian officials had met face to face since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and they marked a complete reversal of policy from that of the Biden administration.
The US delegation, which included Rubio as well as the US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, suggested that this would be the first in a series of engagements to bring the war to an end.
Asked if the US would be willing to accept Russia retaining any of the territory it had annexed from Ukraine since February 2022, Waltz said it was something ” to be discussed.”
“We know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees. Those are just fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion,” Waltz said.
Russia has previously demanded that Ukraine must cede control of large swaths of its territory and give up its ambition to join NATO – conditions Kyiv previously rejected. But with no seat at the table in Riyadh, Ukraine was left to watch from afar as the US and Russia appeared to set out their initial positions.
The announcement that Washington and Moscow would begin in-person talks, just days after US President Donald Trump held a 90-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, sparked panic in Ukraine and amid Kyiv’s Western allies.
European leaders even held an emergency summit on Monday, reiterating that no peace talks can happen without Ukraine and its European allies having a seat at the table.
Waltz pushed back on the idea that Europe and Ukraine had been sidelined, while. Rubio appeared at pains to stress that any agreement will include Ukraine. And while the US delegation did suggest Ukraine might have to give up territory, Rubio said that in order for the war to end “everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it.”
Speaking after the talks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would not “give in to Russia’s ultimatums.”
“Russia attacked Ukraine and we had no choice but to take up arms and defend ourselves. And there was no diplomacy because Russia attacked, attacked Ukraine at night and Ukrainians took up arms and started to defend their country,” Zelensky said at a news conference in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
Russia has been excluded from global diplomacy since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Tuesday’s meeting in Riyadh – which went ahead despite Russia launching an extensive drone attack on Ukraine just hours ahead of their start – appeared to mark an end of this isolation.
The meeting went ahead even though Russia launched an extensive drone attack on Ukraine just hours before the officials were meant to convene.
Russia’s Lavrov called the meeting “very useful.”
“I think the conversation was very useful. We not only listened, but also heard each other,” Lavrov said Tuesday.
The two sides have agreed to reestablish diplomatic communication, with Rubio going as far as saying that “extraordinary opportunities” could be available for both the US and Russia if the war in Ukraine ends.
Rubio said the US could “partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and, frankly, economically.”
Witkoff, meanwhile, described the meeting as “positive, upbeat, constructive.”
“We couldn’t have imagined a better result after this after this session, it was very, very solid,” Witkoff said, without specifying what – if anything – has been agreed.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Anna Chernova, Svitlana Vlasova and Christian Edwards contributed reporting.