Senior Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss improving relations and an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine – without representatives from Kyiv.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov led the delegations that met at the Diriyah Palace in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh. Rubio was accompanied by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Lavrov brought along the Kremlin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and National Security Advisor Musaed al Alban were present for the start of the meeting but were expected to leave early in the talks.
Ukrainian officials are not participating in Tuesday’s meeting and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Kyiv will not accept the outcome if his country is not in attendance for the talks.
Ushakov said Monday the talks would be “purely bilateral” and would not include Ukrainian officials.
Former defense intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler said on “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday morning that Zelenskyy was not included in the meeting, despite Trump saying he would be, because he is “irrelevant” as “his presidency expired in May” and Putin stated that Russia would “only negotiate with some legitimate authority.”
