The US secretary of state and other top officials are due to meet with Russian counterparts on Monday in Riyadh for direct talks aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine. The talks will be facilitated by the Saudi crown prince and are expected to include discussions on Mr. Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s Palestinian population into other Arab nations, with the US leading the reconstruction of their home. The plan has infuriated the Arab world and heightened fears among residents of the besieged Gaza Strip that they will soon be driven out of their homes.
Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s visits to Riyadh will be the first high-level, in-person talks between senior US and Russian officials in years. They are meant to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Putin. They followed a phone call between the two presidents last week. Mr Trump directed his senior officials to begin talks on the war in Ukraine, which he repeatedly vowed to end during his presidential campaign.
However, Mr Trump’s approach to ending the conflict has left European allies and officials in Kyiv concerned they are being sidelined. The US administration has already warned that it could impose new sanctions on Russia if the conflict is unresolved. The US vice president criticized European democracies, calling them “half-hearted allies” at a Munich security conference this week.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had not been invited to the meetings in Saudi Arabia. He warned that Kyiv would not engage with Russia without prior consultations with its partners and that the United States was making it clear that it wanted a deal on the conflict only because it was afraid of Putin. In a speech at the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said that drones launched by Russian forces hit several storage facilities in the area, a business and an administrative building, and windows in 14 residential homes.
A day ahead of the planned talks in Riyadh, a Kremlin spokesman said that Moscow would seek to discuss only issues related to a ceasefire and withdrawal of its forces from Ukrainian territory. The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, insisted that the Russian government is “not pursuing any other agenda other than a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian conflict.” He added that resolving the crisis was essential for European peace and security. Mr. Peskov said that if Russia fails to comply with the terms of a ceasefire, “we will not have any other choice but to continue implementing the relevant provisions of the Minsk agreements and international legal acts.” He also called on Ukraine’s military and political leaders to work together to end the conflict immediately. The two countries have suffered more than 1 million casualties in the war, according to Western estimates. A ceasefire was reached in February but has not been fully implemented.
