US, Russia Establish Dialogue Mechanism, Appoint Negotiators for Ukraine Settlement
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – The United States and Russia agreed Tuesday to establish a "consultation mechanism" to address their differences, and they will appoint negotiators to find a solution to the war in Ukraine.
Following the four-and-a-half-hour talks, the first at this level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed confidence that Russia was committed to a "serious process" to end the war. He emphasized, however, that any agreement on Ukraine must be "acceptable" to all parties.
"It has to be an enduring end to the war, not a temporary end, as we have seen in the past. We know, that’s just the reality of things, that there will have to be a discussion on territory and there will have to be a discussion on security guarantees," he told reporters.
Rubio specified that Europeans, who were left out of the talks along with Kyiv, should also be "at the table at some point," as unilateral sanctions relief from the US without their buy-in was unlikely.
"There are other parties that have sanctions [on Russia], the European Union will have to be at the table at some point because they also have sanctions," he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had detected "a keen interest in lifting artificial barriers to the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation" between Russia and the US. He expressed his belief that the Americans had begun to "understand better" Moscow’s position – reiterating Russia’s categorical opposition to any NATO troop presence in Ukraine – and that Russia and the US had "not only heard" each other but "understood" each other.
Rubio concurred that "there are extraordinary opportunities [that] exist for partnership" with Russia, but that "the key to that is the ending of this conflict."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in Ankara meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, denounced the talks as "on Ukraine without Ukraine" and demanded "equitable" discussions that include the EU, UK, and Turkey. Erdogan, for his part, described his country as "an ideal host for possible negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the US." He emphasized that "Ukraine, Europe in the broadest sense – this includes the European Union, Turkey, and the United Kingdom – should participate in the discussions and formulation of necessary security guarantees with America concerning the fate of our part of the world." He announced that he would postpone his scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia from Wednesday, February 19th, to "March 10th" in light of these developments.
"Our country will be an ideal host for possible negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the US in the near future," the Turkish leader asserted.
Washington and Moscow stated that Kyiv would participate in the talks "in due course," and the Kremlin spokesman assured on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin was "ready to negotiate with Zelensky if necessary."
The Europeans, whose leaders were taken aback by the resumption of contact between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, met urgently in Paris on Monday and demanded to "team up" with the US for a "just and lasting" peace in Ukraine, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the social network X, after a meeting with President Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
However, Rubio and Lavrov in Riyadh ignored these requests and decided to "appoint high-level teams to begin work on a lasting, durable, and mutually acceptable settlement of the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible," the State Department announced in a statement.
"We have discussed, set out our principled approaches, and agreed that separate teams of negotiators on this topic will get in touch in the near future," confirmed Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.
On one point, Russia was adamant. "We explained today that the deployment [in Ukraine] of troops from NATO member states’ armed forces, but under a different flag, under the flag of the European Union, or under national flags, does not change anything. It is of course unacceptable," said Sergei Lavrov, as some European countries and Kyiv have floated the idea of such forces on Ukrainian territory to guarantee Ukraine’s security and compliance with a future agreement ending the war.
In an interview with French newspapers, President Emmanuel Macron assured on Tuesday that "France is not preparing to send ground troops, belligerent in a conflict, to the front" in Ukraine. He announced that he would organize a new meeting on Wednesday "with several European and non-European states" on Ukraine. Macron further said that President Trump "can reinvigorate a useful dialogue" with President Putin. "He is recreating strategic ambiguity for President Putin" by using "very firm words" and creating "uncertainty" that "can help put pressure."
In Riyadh, Moscow, and Washington also agreed to establish a "consultation mechanism" and "lay the foundation for future cooperation on geopolitical issues of mutual interest and the historic economic and investment opportunities that will emerge from a successful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine," the State Department said.
Before the talks began, Russia had emphasized that resolving the war in Ukraine was inextricably linked to a restructuring of European security architecture. Russia has long demanded a withdrawal of NATO forces from Eastern Europe, as it views the Alliance as an existential threat. It had used this argument to justify its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. President Trump’s administration has been critical of its European allies and less willing to support Ukraine.
Tuesday’s meeting followed the telephone conversation last week between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which shattered Western unity and the strategy of isolation aimed at the Russian president. Taking advantage of US-European tensions, Russia ruled out European participation in the talks, as Lavrov claimed that Europe wanted the war to continue.
