Relations between Washington and Moscow underwent a sea change when Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart.
In a reversal of American policy under President Donald Trump, the United States and Russia agreed in high-level discussions Tuesday to restore embassy staffing, escalating concerns in Kyiv and bolstering Moscow’s aspirations to reintegrate into the global community.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Washington will form a high-level committee to work on a strategy to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, and both nations had agreed to restore “the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and Moscow.”
Negotiators have also agreed, according to Rubio, to “start to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine.” He stated that this could only occur when the war was over.
His remarks followed a four-and-a-half-hour discussion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he led a U.S. group and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Kremlin officials were present.
Lavrov affirmed efforts to “remove obstacles” to diplomatic efforts, which he attributed to the Biden administration, and told reporters the meeting was “very constructive.”
He has “reason to believe that the American side has begun to better understand our position” during the Trump administration.
Separately, the Russian state news agency TASS said that Yuri Ushakov, the foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, stated that the negotiations had cleared the path for a potential meeting between Trump and Putin, although he did not specify when that may occur.
Trump revealed last week that he had a 90-minute phone chat with Putin. Washington’s relationship with Moscow, which has been financially and politically isolated since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is about to undergo a significant shift with Tuesday’s meeting in Riyadh.
The bloodiest conflict on the continent since World War II, the war in Ukraine, continues to command attention in Europe.
European politicians, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, voiced their surprise and dismay at being excluded from the Riyadh discussions. Russia will be allowed to retain some of the 20% of Ukraine it has occupied, which is one of Kyiv’s top worries.
Prior to the meeting, Zelenskyy issued a warning: “Ukraine did not know anything about it.”
He stated that Kyiv “cannot recognise… any agreements about us without us, and we regard any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result.”
Zelenskyy announced on Tuesday that he would postpone a prearranged trip that was supposed to take place on Wednesday and had nothing to do with the U.S.-Russia negotiations.
When he said, “I will not go to Saudi Arabia,” “We got in touch with our Arabian counterparts, with whom I get along well. We just got in touch and decided that on March 10, I will be there for an official visit. Additionally, we anticipate the USA in Kyiv.
Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, issued a warning, saying Russia might use the pause to regroup and launch a new attack on Ukraine or other European nations.
Frederiksen’s statement, “Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately,” echoed the belief held by many Europeans that Putin will try to control, if not completely occupy, additional nations.
Residents of Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that has been heavily shelled by Russia during the conflict, weighed their anxieties about Trump’s decision to exclude Kyiv from negotiations against their hopes for an end to the fighting.
“It’s unclear. Yulia Ishuk, who used to work at a restaurant in the port city of Odesa before the war and now manages a rehabilitation facility for soldiers, told an NBC News crew on the ground, “It’s going fast and we don’t see where it’s going.”
“Without our president, Zelenskyy … it’s kind of like games behind our backs and we don’t like it because we don’t understand that,” Ishuk, who is 47 years old, said. “We don’t understand what’s going on.”
Washington’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, was in Brussels Tuesday, meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in preparation for a visit to Ukraine, while negotiators held talks in Riyadh.
In Abu Dhabi on Monday, Zelenskyy stated that he wished to take Kellogg “to the front line” and arrange for him to speak with diplomats and intelligence officials in order to “bring more information back to America.”
Kellogg’s visit follows the European Union’s and Britain’s emergency meeting in France on Monday to decide how to react to the Trump administration’s announcement that they would not participate in the negotiations with Russia.
After an emergency summit of European leaders on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had held conversations with both Zelenskyy and Trump.
In a post on X, Macron stated, “We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine.” “Russia must stop its aggression and provide the Ukrainians with solid and reliable security guarantees in order to accomplish this.”
Zelenskyy posted on X on Monday, mentioning his chat with Macron, and stating that the two had a “common vision” of “robust and reliable” security assurances for Ukrainians.
“Any other decision without such guarantees — such as a fragile ceasefire — would only serve as another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European nations,” cautioned him.
A Trump administration official told NBC News on Tuesday that Russia had freed American Kalob Byers, which prompted the high-level negotiations in Riyadh. Since early February, Byers has been held in the nation on accusations of transporting drugs.
According to an administration official, “the Russians turned him over, which is a welcome gesture.” “We hope they think the same way about all Americans who have been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia.”
Byers’ release followed the release of Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvania teacher who had been imprisoned in Russia for over three years, in return for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency specialist who was charged with Bitcoin fraud in the United States.