U.S. and Russia to appoint teams to negotiate end of Ukraine war in talks that excluded Kyiv

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, third left, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, second right, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The U.S. and Russia will appoint high-level teams to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine and are working to reestablish diplomatic channels, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the end of key talks that excluded Kyiv.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Rubio said “concessions” will have to be made by “all sides” in order for the conflict to end.

Even the fact that the talks were held at all was a major victory for Russia. The meeting marked the first time top-level U.S. and Russian officials had met face to face since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and they marked a complete reversal of policy from that of the Biden administration.

The U.S. delegation, which included Rubio as well as the U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, suggested that this would be the first in a series of engagements to bring the war to an end.

Asked if the U.S. would be willing to accept Russia retaining any of the territory it had annexed from Ukraine since February 2022, Waltz said it was something ”to be discussed.”

“We know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees. Those are just fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion,” Waltz said.

Following the meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday night criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has said he will not accept any deal that is made in Ukraine’s absence.

“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going well. But today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,” Trump told reporters in Mar-a-Lago about Ukraine.

Russia has previously demanded that Ukraine must cede control of large swaths of its territory and give up its ambition to join NATO – conditions Kyiv previously rejected. But with no seat at the table in Riyadh, Ukraine was left to watch from afar as the U.S. and Russia appeared to set out their initial positions.

The announcement that Washington and Moscow would begin in-person talks, just days afterTrump held a 90-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, sparked panic in Ukraine and amid Kyiv’s Western allies.

European leaders even held an emergency summit on Monday, reiterating that no peace talks can happen without Ukraine and its European allies having a seat at the table. France is set to host further talks on Wednesday.

Waltz pushed back on the idea that Europe and Ukraine had been sidelined, while Rubio appeared at pains to stress that any agreement will include Ukraine. And while the U.S. delegation did suggest Ukraine might have to give up territory, Rubio said that in order for the war to end “everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it.”

Speaking after the talks, Zelensky said Ukraine would not “give in to Russia’s ultimatums.”

“Russia attacked Ukraine and we had no choice but to take up arms and defend ourselves. And there was no diplomacy because Russia attacked, attacked Ukraine at night and Ukrainians took up arms and started to defend their country,” Zelensky said at a news conference in Turkey’s capital Ankara.

Zelensky added that he was postponing his planned visit to Saudi Arabia in light of the talks that took place there on Tuesday.

Talks mark end to Russia’s isolation

Russia has been excluded from global diplomacy since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Tuesday’s meeting in Riyadh – which went ahead despite Russia launching an extensive drone attack on Ukraine just hours ahead of their start – appeared to mark an end of this isolation.

Russia’s Lavrov called the meeting “very useful.”

“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” Lavrov said Tuesday.

The two sides have agreed to reestablish diplomatic communication, with Rubio going as far as saying that “extraordinary opportunities” could be available for both the U.S. and Russia if the war in Ukraine ends.

Rubio said the U.S. could “partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and, frankly, economically.”

Witkoff, meanwhile, described the meeting as “positive, upbeat, constructive.”

“We couldn’t have imagined a better result after this session, it was very, very solid,” Witkoff said.

Russia demands territory, Zelensky’s ouster

Neither the U.S. nor the Russian officials gave any indication whether they discussed in detail what, if any, concessions Russia and Ukraine might be willing to make to bring the conflict to an end.

But the Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya outlined Moscow’s key demands ahead of the talks. Many of them will likely be seen in Kyiv as unacceptable.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Nebenzya said that Russia wants Ukraine to cede control of the entirety of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, saying these places and Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014, were “irrevocably lost.”

He incorrectly claimed that the regions had “joined the Russian Federation,” referring to referenda that were held by Russian-installed authorities across the occupied areas, widely denounced as shams by Ukraine and its Western allies.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based conflict monitor, Russia currently occupies about 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, 70 per cent of the Donetsk region, and roughly 75 per cent of both the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Nebenzya said that the peace negotiations should “correct” this situation, insisting that Ukraine give up control of the parts of the four regions not under Russian occupation.

Nebenzya also made it clear that Russia wants to force Zelensky out of office. The Russian ambassador called Zelensky “the self-proclaimed Ukrainian president” and referred to his government as “the Zelensky cabal,” saying that neither had “a role to play in the new Ukraine.”

Zelensky won the second round of Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election in a landslide. His mandate should have ended last May, but he remains in office because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion and martial law prohibits holding elections.

In his comments Tuesday, Trump indicated openness to pushing for new elections in Ukraine.

Asked about reports that Russia wants Ukraine to agree to hold elections before any peace deal is agreed upon, Trump said, “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine – where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at four percent approval rating.”

No peacekeepers from NATO countries: Russia

Nebenzya also said that Ukraine should be a “demilitarized, neutral state, not a part of any blocs or alliances.” Ukraine has long insisted on joining NATO in the future and the defense alliance has said the door is open to any country that wishes to join, as long as it fulfills the admission criteria.

Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia would not accept troops from NATO countries acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Trump, however, asked later on Tuesday night if he supported stationing European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, said he “would not object to it at all.”

“If they want to do that, that’s great. I’m all for it. If they want to do that, I think that’s, that’d be fine,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, noting that France and the United Kingdom had expressed openness to putting troops on the ground. The U.S., he said, would not participate “because we’re very far away.”

And while Rubio suggested on Tuesday that Ukraine’s European partners “would have to be at the table at some point,” Nebenzya said the European Union and the United Kingdom cannot act as mediators or be part of any agreement on Ukraine. He said the EU and UK are “incapable” of reaching any agreement with Russia because they are blinded by “primitive Russophobia.”

CNN’s Anna Chernova, Svitlana Vlasova, Christian Edwards, Lauren Kent and Betsy Klein contributed reporting.