US, Russia end Ukraine war talks pledging closer ties
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Wednesday 19 Feb 2025
(Sharecast News) - US and Russian officials ended their controversial meeting in Saudi Arabia on the future of a post-war Ukraine and pledged to explore closer economic and diplomatic ties.
The talks in Riyadh - which excluded the Ukrainians or any representatives from Europe - wrapped up after five hours amid concerns that any settlement to end the three-year conflict after Russia's unprovoked invasion of its neighbour, would favour Moscow and leave neighbouring states at risk of Russian aggression.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any resolution to the war would have to be acceptable to all involved, including Ukraine, Europe and Russia, despite the fact that officials from the latter two were not invited to Tuesday's talks, signalling a major shift in relations between Washington and Moscow since the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and President Vladimir Putin's chief foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Rubio was accompanied by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and Trump's Middle East envoy, the property developer Steve Witkoff.
"This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end as we've seen in the past," Waltz told reporters.
"The practical reality is that there's going to be some discussion of territory and there's going to be discussion of security guarantees, those are just fundamental basics," he added.
LAVROV REJECTS PEACEKEEPER PROPOSAL
However, a proposal that a peacekeeping force be stationed inside Ukraine at the signing of an armistice was rejected by Lavrov.
"We explained to our colleagues today what President Putin has repeatedly stressed: that the expansion of Nato, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty," he said.
"The appearance of troops from Nato countries ... under a foreign flag, the flag of the European Union or the national flag, is unacceptable," he said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not accept any deal reached with his country's participation or the surrender of any territory taken by the Russians. He has also rejected an initial US demand that it be given 50% of Ukraine's mineral resources.
"Diplomacy does not mean surrendering the interests and sovereignty of our state," he said at a meeting with representatives of the Crimean Tatar community during a visit to Ankara where he held talks with Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
European leaders held an emergency summit in Paris on Monday to formulate their own response to US demands to ramp up defence spending and send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine if an armistice was signed. Shares in weapons makers spiked on the news.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking after the meeting, said he was prepared to consider putting British forces on the ground, alongside others, "if there is a lasting peace agreement", but said there had to be a US backstop "because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again".
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
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