U.S. and Russian officials today held more than four hours of talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking their first discussions aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia’s chief foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov held discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and West Asia Envoy Steve Witkoff. After the meeting, Mr Yuri Ushakov said the talks went well and there was a serious conversation on all issues. He also mentioned that the two sides agreed for negotiators to discuss Ukraine and briefly talked about the conditions needed for a Putin-Trump meeting. Meanwhile, he noted the summit was unlikely to take place next week. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said both countries agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to address irritants in the bilateral relationship to take steps necessary to normalize the operation of respective diplomatic missions.
In a related development, Russia has said that Ukraine cannot join NATO, and a simple refusal to accept the country into the military alliance is also not enough. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that NATO must disavow the Bucharest promises of 2008. At a summit in April 2008, NATO declared that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance but provided no plan for their accession. It is worth mentioning that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia remains committed to a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict and is ready to hold direct talks between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr Peskov emphasized that Putin is open to dialogue with Zelensky if it serves the goal of achieving peace. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine cannot agree to anything without its participation
