US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, US officials say.
America’s top diplomat will be joined by national security adviser Mike Waltz and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, the officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said Washington, Moscow and Kyiv would be involved in talks, but Europe was not invited.
Amid European concern that the US is moving ahead on peace talks with Russia without consulting the continent, Ukraine’s European allies will gather in Paris next week for an emergency summit on the war.
Speaking on Saturday Kellogg said previous negotiations had failed because too many parties had been involved.
“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” the US diplomat added.
Also on Saturday, Rubio spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, where he reaffirmed US President Donald Trump’s “commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine”, according to state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
It followed a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, when the White House shocked its European allies by reviving direct contact with Moscow after a freeze of more than three years.
After the call, Trump said negotiations to stop the “ridiculous war” in Ukraine would begin “immediately”.
The upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia follow tensions at the international Munich Security Conference, where US Vice President JD Vance sharply criticised European democracies on Friday.
Vance repeated the Trump administration’s line that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”.
On Wednesday US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to rule out Ukraine joining Nato or recovering all of its territory – fuelling European alarm that the US may be making concessions to Russia before any peace deal is negotiated.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, having already seized Crimea and part of the eastern Donbas region in 2014.
Addressing the Munich conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the creation of an “army of Europe” amid rising concern that Washington may no longer come to the continent’s aid.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” Zelensky said.
