US-Russia ties and Ukraine war will be on the table as top diplomats from Moscow and Washington meet in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, while a concerned Europe remains in the shadows.
Though a tentative start to ending the Russia-Ukraine war, about to near a three-year mark, both sides said the first high-level meet since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine is unlikely to result in concrete outcomes. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, will also discuss the war in Ukraine. The talks come after US President Donald Trump held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, while the American defence chief rule out Ukraine joining NATO.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the talks would be “primarily devoted to restoring the whole complex of Russian-American relations”, alongside discussions on “possible negotiations on a Ukrainian resolution, and organising a meeting between the two presidents”.
Kyiv was not invited to the talks, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accuse the US of wanting “to please” Putin by “now saying things that are very favourable” to him. Zelensky said “we will not sign just anything in order to be applauded” and stressed that “the fate of our state for generations to come” was at stake. Even so, he warned that “there will definitely not be a Ukrainian victory without US support”.
Zelensky said last week he was prepared to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies had a common position on ending the war.
Trump’s push for a swift resolution to the three-year conflict in Ukraine is Moscow’s opportunity to press its long-standing demands regarding Washington’s military presence in Europe. Moscow has sought to roll back NATO’s presence in Europe, with Putin demanding before the February 2022 invasion for the withdrawal of military alliance’s troops equipment and bases out of several eastern members that were under Moscow’s sphere of influence during the Cold War.
Moscow is buoyed by advances on the battlefield, pushing back Ukrainian troops across the 1,000-kilometre-long front line and regaining control of a village in the western Kursk region.
Rubio will also hold talks with Saudi officials on a controversial US proposal for Gaza, days after Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza and relocate millions of Palestinians from the besieged enclave. While the US has indicated it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, Rubio has stated that “the only plan is the Trump plan.”
