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The much-anticipated meeting between Russia and the United States in Saudi Arabia concluded on Tuesday evening (Riyadh time). Ukraine was discussed in detail. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to the international press immediately after the top-level meeting.
"Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey - but an important one," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his opening remarks. He outlined the goal set in the meeting. "The goal is an agreement that is acceptable to everyone involved in it - and that obviously includes Ukraine, but also our partners in Europe, and, of course, the Russian side as well."
Secretary Rubio stressed that Donald Trump wants a swift resolution of the conflict and has urged all sides to move quickly in order to bring an end to the years-long war in Ukraine. Calling for a fair, enduring, and sustainable agreement in this regard, Mr Rubio said all sides will need to make concessions in order to find a common ground.
The US delegation, which included National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff said that the US and Russia will both appoint special teams to negotiate a settlement in order to "bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end". Russia currently controls approximately one-fifth or 20 per cent of Ukraine's territory.
The US team said that the talks with Russian officials also focused on improving ties between Washington and Moscow which had gone into a deep-freeze under the Biden administration. They however said, that a date has not yet been decided for a possible summit to be held by Putin and Trump.
Russian negotiator and Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the over four-hour discussion that "It was a very serious conversation on all the questions we wanted to touch upon", however gave no specific details of Moscow's demands.
At the meeting in Riyadh today, Russia signalled a hardening of its demands. In a press briefing in Moscow, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said it was "not enough" for NATO not to admit Ukraine as a member, adding that the military alliance must go further by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would join at a future, unspecified date. "Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent," she stressed.
Ukraine's Zelensky, however, has repeatedly stressed that a NATO membership for Kyiv is the only way for Ukraine to safeguard its independence and sovereignty. Ahead of the Russia-US meeting in Riyadh today, for which Ukraine was not invited, Mr Zelensky said "We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us."
As the meeting concluded, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that the US "better understood" Moscow's position on the situation. He went on to describe the meeting as a "very useful" one.
"We did not just listen but heard each other, and I have reason to believe that the American side has better understood our position," he said, adding that Moscow has conveyed to Washington that it opposes any NATO member sending any troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire, whether under a national flag or that of the European Union. "This is absolutely unacceptable to us," he said pointedly.
Mr Lavrov also mentioned that Washington hinted at lifting sanctions currently placed on Moscow. "There was strong interest in removing artificial barriers to the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation," he said.
Ukraine and the European Union, especially NATO allies are worried about Washington making hasty decisions under President Trump just to cut a deal with Moscow. This, they fear, may not just result in ignoring the security concerns of Europe, but might end up being rewarding for Moscow for its invasion.
(Inputs from Reuters and AFP)