The US and Russia have agreed on four principles in a peace deal with Ukraine, according to President Donald Trump’s state secretary.
American and Russian officials agreed to the points toward ending the war in Ukraine during an over four-hour meeting in Saudia Arabia – that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed the developments on Tuesday after meeting in Riyadh with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.
The first principle is reestablishing the US and Moscow’s missions in each other’s nations.
‘For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally,’ said Rubio.
Second, the US will ‘appoint a high-level team from our end to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine in a way that’s enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged’, Rubio said.
The third point involves discussing and examining geopolitical and economic cooperation ‘that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine’, he said.
Lastly, Rubio said the officials in the meeting will ‘remain engaged in this process to make sure that it’s moving along in a productive way’.
Lavrov told US diplomats that the discussion was ‘very useful’.
‘We not only listened, but also heard each other,’ he said.
He added that Ukraine would pose a ‘direct threat’ to Russian sovereignty if they are allowed to become a member of NATO.
Zelensky said he was ‘surprised’ that he was not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia, and that Ukraine will not accept any deal that he is not invited to participate in.
He said he will not ‘give in to Russia’s ultimatums’.
‘I wonder why they believe Ukraine would accept all these ultimatums now if we refused them at the most difficult moment,’ said Zelensky from Ankara, where he met with Turkey’s president.
‘I have never given any guarantees to anyone or confirmed anything. Moreover, I have never intended to accept Russia’s ultimatums. And I am not going to.’
Zelensky said he canceled his trip to Saudi Arabia that was scheduled for Wednesday.
The meeting on Tuesday in Riyadh was meant as a precursor for a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It ended with no date set for the summit, which is ‘unlikely’ to happen next week, according to Ushakov.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
