The first high-level discussions between the United States and Russia since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago took place in Saudi Arabia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, along with other senior officials, met on Tuesday morning in Riyadh’s Diriyah Palace. The talks, which discussed the potential for finding path to end the war in Ukraine, involved neither Kyiv nor European representatives.
More than four hours of talks between Ukrainian and European officials, which lasted for more than four hours, confirmed the shocking shift in US foreign policy under US President Donald Trump, who has suggested that US aid to Ukraine may be ending and that Kyiv will likely have to cede territory.
Moscow and Washington will be restoring relations on a number of fronts, said Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, after a press briefing by Lavrov following the ministers ‘ meeting.
The US and Russia will be holding “regular consultations on a number of issues”, said Shapovalova.
It was also unclear when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump will meet, she continued.
The Kremlin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, earlier on Tuesday told Russian state television that the talks were “serious”.
He stated, “We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and we all agreed that separate teams of negotiators would be in touch with this subject in due course.”
A US statement said that the two countries agreed to address “irritants” in their relations, and to name teams to negotiate “ending the conflict in Ukraine”.
A spokeswoman argued that the negotiation is still in its early stages and that a phone call and a meeting alone would not bring about lasting peace.
No date has been set, but Ushakov had previously mentioned a meeting between Trump and Putin. A meeting is “unlikely” to take place next week, he noted.
Shapovalova said that while neither the US nor Russia expects a quick breakthrough, “there’s a lot of optimism in the air, as well as scepticism”.
Ukraine demands “security guarantees.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed Kyiv had been kept ignorant about the discussions.
He claimed that his nation would reject any deal reached in its absence and demanded “certain security guarantees” from the US and Europe.
“We will never, under any circumstances, recognise our temporarily occupied territories as part of Russia”, he was quoted by Turkish state media as saying. “They are part of Ukraine”.
The Kremlin, for its part, said Putin was serious about negotiating a settlement to end the war and would prefer to do so peacefully.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted, however, that a viable, long-term settlement is impossible without “a comprehensive consideration of security issues” in Europe.
Peskov also acknowledged that Ukraine has the right to join the European Union, but he added that Moscow’s position on military alliances, such as NATO, is “completely different.”
That means that NATO should renounce its 2008 assurance that Ukraine would eventually become a member, according to Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry.
Beyond Ukraine, Russia expects “progress” with the US on economic issues, said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
“We have a series of proposals, which our colleagues are thinking about. And I think that there will, possibly, be progress in the not-so-distant future, in the next two to three months”, the sovereign wealth fund manager told state TV.
Since the US and EU have imposed sanctions on Russia, the economy has been stifled.
Russian drone attacks
The discussions come as Ukraine continues to lose ground to larger Russian forces over the course of the grinding three-year conflict, with concerns that a declining US support could lead to a destabilizing resolution.
Ahead of Tuesday’s discussions, Russian forces launched a barrage of 176 drones at Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s military. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the majority of the drones were reportedly jammed or destroyed.
Source: Aljazeera
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