The USA and Russia form teams for Ukraine war negotiations without Kyiv

The USA and Russia form teams for Ukraine war negotiations without Kyiv

The United States and Russia will appoint high -ranking teams to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine. At the same time, they are working on restoring diplomatic channels, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced crucial discussions in which Kiev was not involved.

conversations between the USA and Russia

Rubio spoke to journalists after a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lawrow in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He emphasized that "compromises" have to be made by "all sides" so that the conflict can be ended. The mere fact that these talks took place represented a great success for Russia.

reaction from Ukraine

The session marked the first personal meeting of high-ranking US and Russian civil servants since the beginning of the extensive invasion of Ukraine by Moscow in 2022 and represents a complete change of course of the bidet administration. The start of a number of engagements is to end the war.

When asked whether the United States would be willing to allow Russia to control the control over annexed areas, Waltz explained that this was a topic "for discussions". "We know that there will be some discussions about territories and security guarantees in practical reality. These are basic points that are of crucial importance for any kind of discussion," continues Waltz.

renewed isolation of Russia?

Russia had previously called for the Ukraine to depart large parts of its territory and to give its ambitions to NATO accession-conditions that Kiev had previously rejected. But without a place at the negotiating table in Riyadh, Ukraine had no choice but to watch away from a distance while the United States and Russia spotted its positions.

The announcement that Washington and Moscow would accept personal conversations-just a few days after US President Donald Trump had made a 90-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin-triggered in Ukraine and among the Western European allies.

emergency summit of European leaders

European heads of state and government held an emergency summit on Monday and emphasized that peace talks can only take place if Ukraine and its European allies sit at the negotiating table. Waltz rejected the idea that Europe and Ukraine were sidelined while Rubio pointed out that every agreement must include Ukraine. He said that for the end of the war "everyone must agree to the proposal".

strong testimony of the Ukrainian resistance

After the talks, the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj said that Ukraine would not "give in to Russia's ultimate". "Russia attacked Ukraine and we had no choice but to take up weapons and defend ourselves. There was no diplomacy because Russia attacked," said Selenskyj at a press conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.

an end to isolation?

Since the extensive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been excluded from global diplomacy. The meeting in Riyadh - despite an extensive drone attack on Russia on Ukraine only hours before the start of the conversations - may be the end of this isolation.

Lawrow called the meeting "very useful" and found: "I think the conversation was very helpful. We not only listened to each other, we also heard each other." The two sides have agreed to restore diplomatic communication. Rubio was optimistic and said that "extraordinary possibilities" could exist for both the United States and Russia if the war ended in Ukraine.

Rubio emphasized that the United States could "geopolitically work with the Russians on topics of common interest and, very openly, economically together." Witkoff described the meeting as "positive, optimistic and constructive" and added: "We could not imagine a better result after this session, it was very solid", but without giving details that was exactly agreed.

reports from CNN were contributed by Jennifer Hansler, Anna Chernova, Svitlana Vlasova and Christian Edwards.