U.S. and Russian officials during a meeting at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Washington said Russia and the United States will name teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, as the superpowers met on Tuesday (February 18, 2025) in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv or the EU.

However, no specifics on a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin emerged from the gathering in Riyadh, the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since Ukraine’s 2022 invasion.

Some European leaders, alarmed by Trump’s overhaul of U.S. policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal between superpowers.

On Tuesday (February 18, 2025), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible”, the State Department said.

Washington added the sides had also agreed to “establish a consultation mechanism” to address “irritants” to Russia and America’s relationship, noting the sides would lay the groundwork for future cooperation.

Russia offered less detail on the outcome of the talks, saying: “We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and agreed that separate teams of negotiators will be in touch on this topic in due course.”

“It is still difficult to talk about a specific date for a meeting between the two leaders,” said Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.

Russia sketched out some of its perspectives on future talks to ending the fighting in Ukraine, arguing that settling the war required a reorganisation of Europe’s defence agreements.

Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat on its flank.

“A lasting and long-term viable resolution is impossible without a comprehensive consideration of security issues on the continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, responding to a question by AFP.

Before invading Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded NATO pull out of central and eastern Europe.

European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris a day earlier, but struggled to put on a united front.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Turkey on Tuesday, said on the eve of the talks that he was not invited and would not “recognise any things or any agreements about us without us”.

Isolated by the West for three years, Russia is hoping for a “restoration” of ties with the United States and a comeback to the international arena.

At the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, negotiations began without visible handshakes.

‘How to start negotiations’

Both Russia and the United States have cast Tuesday’s meeting as the beginning of a potentially lengthy process and downplayed the prospects of a breakthrough.

Russia’s Ushakov told state media the talks would discuss “how to start negotiations on Ukraine”.

Trump has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, but has thus far presented no concrete plan.

The United States has urged both sides that concessions will have to be made if any peace talks materialise.

Russia on the eve of the summit said there cannot be even a “thought” on it giving up territory seized from Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that Ukraine had the “right” to join the European Union, but not the NATO military alliance.

It also said Putin was “ready” to negotiate with Zelensky “if necessary”, though repeated its questioning of his “legitimacy” — a reference to his five-year term expiring last year, despite Ukrainian law not requiring elections during wartime.

The Ukrainian leader was in Turkey on Tuesday for discussions on the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He is due in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, though he said he does not plan to meet with US or Russian officials.

‘Efforts toward peace’

The EU, reeling from a series of speeches by Trump’s officials indicating Washington does not see Moscow as a threat, said it still wants to “partner” with the United States on any truce talks.

Trump’s administration has given no clear answer on whether the EU would take part and Moscow has said it sees no point in Europe having a seat at the table.

“Financially and militarily, Europe has brought more to the table than anyone else,” the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on social media.

“We want to partner with the US to deliver a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”

Key Russian ally China also welcomed “efforts towards peace” on Tuesday.

“At the same time, we hope that all parties and stakeholders can participate,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Russia has presented cautious optimism on the talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
| Photo Credit: AP

Russia sees no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war in Ukraine but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbours, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday (December 26, 2024).

“A truce is a path to nowhere,” Mr. Lavrov said, adding that Moscow suspected such a weak truce would be simply used by the West to re-arm Ukraine.

“We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbors,” Mr. Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way to ensure “the impossibility of violating these agreements.”

Reuters reported last month that President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Donald Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Mr. Putin said last week that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Mr. Putin said the fighting was complex, so it was “difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead… (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation.”

Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly said he will end the war, said on Sunday that Mr. Putin wanted to meet with him. Russia says there have been no contacts with the incoming Trump administration.

Mr. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kyiv and several other European capitals in early January as the next administration tries to bring a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine war, according to two sources with knowledge of the trip’s planning.

“I really hope that the administration of Mr. Trump, including Mr. Kellogg, will get involved in the root causes of the conflict. We are always ready for consultations,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Mr. Putin says an arrogant West led by the United States ignored Russia’s post-Soviet interests, tried to pull Ukraine into its orbit since 2014 and then used Ukraine to fight a proxy war aimed at weakening – and ultimately destroying – Russia.

After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and began giving military support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The West says Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was an imperial-style land grab by Moscow that has strengthened the NATO military alliance and weakened Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukraine’s membership of NATO is “achievable”, but that Kyiv will have to fight to persuade allies to make it happen.

Moscow says the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO was one of the principal justifications for its invasion. Russia has said it any NATO membership for Ukraine would make any peace deal impossible.