The United States and Russia are meeting in Saudi Arabia for high-stakes talks about ending the war in Ukraine and broader tensions between Washington and Moscow that could shape the security situation in Europe for years to come.
The February 18 gathering in Riyadh comes as Washington has intensified its efforts to bring an end to the nearly three-year war in Ukraine and launched a diplomatic blitz that has left Kyiv and European governments wondering what kind of shape a deal to stop the war could take.
“This is intended to be the first step in a longer process of negotiation, but events are also moving fast,” Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British diplomat who is currently a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told RFE/RL. “There is fluidity right now that will continue to evolve in this moment of high uncertainty.”
Who Will Be At The Talks In Riyadh?
The talks are the first high-level in-person discussions in years and are meant to pave the way for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yury Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Putin, will take part in the talks.
Washington has also confirmed that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national-security adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will attend.
The U.S. delegation does not include retired General Keith Kellogg, the special envoy appointed by the White House to negotiate a settlement to the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been invited to the talks and he has said that Kyiv will not recognize any agreements made about Ukraine when it is not present at the negotiating table.
Zelenskyy -- who is currently on a Middle East tour that includes visits to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- also confirmed that Kellogg will arrive in Kyiv on February 20 for “broad conversations about security guarantees.”
What's On The Agenda In Saudi Arabia?
Rubio told CBS during a February 16 interview that the meeting in Riyadh will aim to open a broader conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war.”
But the discussions between Rubio and Lavrov are also expected to be more wide-ranging than how to broker peace in Ukraine and could touch on broader aspects of Moscow and Washington’s relationship, such as sanctions, energy, and security issues.
Rubio also said that Kyiv and European governments would be involved in negotiations should they progress following the meeting with Lavrov and the Russian delegation in Riyadh.
“If it’s real negotiations -- and we’re not there yet -- but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they’re the one that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well, and they’ve contributed to this effort,” he said.
Before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Lavrov reiterated on February 17 that Russia was not considering relinquishing territory it has seized from Ukraine.
As European leaders met in Paris for an emergency summit on Ukraine and defense, Lavrov also said that he saw no reason for Europeans to take part in discussions.
“Nothing big will actually be decided until you have Trump and Putin in the same room,” Andrew D’Anieri, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, told RFE/RL. “That means there is still time and lots of opportunities for the Europeans and Ukrainians to also shape the thinking of the Trump administration.”
What Are The Latest U.S. Statements On Ending The War?
Trump campaigned on quickly ending the war in Ukraine and his administration now says that it aims to reach a deal within his first 100 days in office.
The talks in Saudi Arabia come after a flurry of recent statements by him and U.S. officials about ending the war in Ukraine.
During his first European trip since assuming office, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in February 12 remarks at NATO headquarters that Washington does not support Ukraine joining NATO as part of a peace settlement and that it is “unrealistic” for Kyiv to regain its territorial borders from 2014, before Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Hegseth also said that European troops should be the main force securing a post-war Ukraine and that U.S. troops should not be involved.
That same day, Putin and Trump had a phone call where the U.S. president seemed to signal an end to Russia’s diplomatic isolation as both leaders discussed “bilateral economic cooperation” and Trump called for Moscow’s return to the G8 grouping of industrialized nations after Russia was kicked out over the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
What's Russia's Position Going Into The Talks?
Putin initially wanted to capture Kyiv and install a government sympathetic to Moscow. Since failing to do that, the Kremlin has held firm on its demands to keep swaths of occupied Ukrainian territory and limit the size of Ukraine's military.
During their phone call, Putin told Trump he wanted to "settle the reasons for the conflict," indicating that Russia has not dropped its goal of stopping Ukraine’s ambitions to integrate with the West and rolling back the post-Cold War security order.
“If I’m Putin, I’m now trying to exploit the United States’ willingness to quickly cut a deal to see if I can get as close as possible to the maximalist positions that I’ve held since the beginning of the war,” John Hardie, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told RFE/RL.
Gould-Davies, the former British diplomat, says that the Kremlin could look to push similar demands that it did in late 2021 before it launched its full-scale invasion.
Back then, Lavrov issued demands in talks with the United States that called for a ban on Ukraine joining NATO and withdrawing deployments of NATO troops and weapons to where they were stationed in 1997 before the alliance’s eastward expansion.
“Putin has been clear that he is not interested in a cease-fire, he only wants a final end to the war,” Gould-Davies said. “That implies some sort of settlement on a range of fundamental issues and the creation of a new regional order that would likely be on terms much more favorable to Russia.”
