U.S., Russian officials to discuss how to end Ukraine war

Trump administration officials are preparing to meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia to start talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a major departure from the Biden administration’s reluctance to engage Moscow on the deadly conflict.

“We’ll be having meetings at the direction of the president and hopefully we’ll make some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine,” U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Witkoff are expected to take part in the early-stage talks in Riyadh, said a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts.

News of the meeting has been met with anxiety in Europe and Ukraine, where officials said they were left out of the initial phases of planning for the meeting.

“There is not any leader in the world who can really make a deal with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin without us about us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC News.

Asked if Putin was capable of negotiating in good faith, Zelenskyy told NBC on Sunday: “He’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.”

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to bring a quick end to the war, which in three years has killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians and plunged relations between Washington and Moscow to their lowest point since the Cold War.

Trump’s determination to spearhead the negotiations marks a significant shift from the Biden administration, which maintained that the timing of negotiations was the prerogative of Ukraine. In practice, that meant a total absence of negotiations.

Witkoff, asked why Ukraine wasn’t invited to the talks, said, “I think Ukraine is part of the talks.”

“I don’t think this is about excluding anybody,” he said.

Trump told reporters Sunday the peace process was “moving along” and Zelenskyy “will be involved.” Asked if he shared Zelenskyy’s concern that Russia would wage war against NATO, he said “not even a little bit.”

Putin “wants to stop fighting,” Trump said on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. He said Russia defeated Hitler and Napoleon. “I think he wants to end it and they want to end it fast,” he said. “Zelenskyy wants to end it, too.”

Neither Zelenskyy nor his top aide, Andriy Yermak, plans to attend the meeting in Saudi Arabia, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic talks.

The planned meeting in Saudi Arabia has also caused concern in Europe, where officials are vying for more involvement in Trump’s plans. On Saturday, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, made clear that Trump would not outsource diplomacy to Europe.

“They failed miserably. So we’re not going to go down that path,” Kellogg said, referring to a previous effort to achieve peace in Ukraine led by France and Germany during the Obama administration.

Rubio said leaders of Ukraine and Europe would eventually be part of any negotiations and underscored that current discussions are about starting a “process” that has been nonexistent to negotiate the end of the war.

“Right now there is no process,” Rubio told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, but “if there is a process,” Europe and Ukraine will have to be part of it.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said a bipartisan group of senators met with Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference this weekend and reinforced the importance of Ukraine being at the negotiating table.

“He got reassurances from the bipartisan senators that he met with that we agree, Ukraine absolutely must be part of any negotiations between Russia and the United States,” Shaheen told CBS News.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, previewed the expected meeting during a Saturday interview with Politico in Munich.

Trump “wants to resolve all these conflicts,” McCaul said. “He doesn’t see these conflicts being beneficial to the American people. That’s why you’re seeing Rubio, Waltz and Witkoff being dispatched … to talk to the Ukrainians and the Russians about Ukraine.”

McCaul, who is chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said his “understanding” was that the meeting in Saudi Arabia would “lay the groundwork” for a summit between Trump and Putin, which “would be a very monumental achievement if done right.”

Rubio confirmed that he spoke about these issues with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, the first time he has ever spoken with Lavrov, and downplayed the likelihood of dramatic outcomes from this week’s meetings. “One meeting isn’t going to solve it,” he said.

A Russian government summary of the call said the discussion focused on “removing unilateral barriers inherited from the previous U.S. administration, aiming to restore mutually beneficial trade, economic, and investment cooperation.” Rubio and Lavrov, Russia said, “agreed to maintain an open channel of communication.”

The Trump administration’s approach to ending the conflict has brought greater tension in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. The United States has given tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. Trump has made clear that the United States cannot afford an open-ended military commitment.

Zelenskyy rejected a request the Trump administration made last week for Kyiv to hand over 50% of its mineral resources to the United States, the Washington Post reported Saturday. Ukraine is working on a proposal that would offer Washington more access to the country’s natural resources and bolster U.S. security guarantees, seven people familiar with the discussions said.

Despite the disagreements, Zelenskyy told NBC that he continues to believe that Trump is negotiating in good faith. Zelenskyy noted that without U.S. military support, there is a “low chance to survive. … It’s very important, critical.”

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “I think President Putin wants peace, and President Zelenskyy wants peace. And I want peace.”