US and Russia move to revive ties as Ukraine is cut out

Top officials from the U.S. and Russia met for a first round of talks over the war in Ukraine and raised the possibility of broader cooperation, signaling President Donald Trump desire to reboot a battered relationship.

The two sides ended more than four hours of negotiations in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday with a pledge to appoint high-level teams to work toward ending the conflict “as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all sides,” the U.S. State Department said.

There was more: The U.S. raised the possibility of lifting the raft of sanctions it’s aimed at Russia. They also agreed to work toward boosting staff at their embassies, addressing other “irritants” in the relationship and paving the way for more cooperation. Although the talks were preliminary, that attitude suggested the U.S. was already looking beyond the war and toward meeting Trump’s long-held desire of boosting ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting was the latest in a flurry of activity that began with a phone call between Putin and Trump and showed that the current U.S. administration has been willing to upend several years of U.S. policy centered on a pledge that Ukraine would be involved every step of the way in any resolution of the conflict. Russian leaders hailed the outcome as a success.

Trump said he was “much more confident” that a deal could be negotiated following the talks, telling reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that he would “probably” meet with Putin before the end of the month.

“They were very good. Russia wants to do something,” Trump said.

The push signaled Trump’s desire to reset ties with Putin’s government that were ruptured over Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, continued to deteriorate over a series of cyber-attacks and overseas assassinations and went into deep freeze with the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“There’s no question that the Russians are pleased with what’s happened since the phone call last week,” said John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They interpret this as ending their isolation and America accepting Russia despite the wretched war, the barbaric war they’ve been waging.”

European alarm

The U.S. approach provoked deep alarm among European nations and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wasn’t invited to take part in the meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the U.S. delegation, said the goal was ending the conflict in a way that’s “acceptable to all parties involved.”

But the approach had already provoked an angry response from the Ukrainian leader: Zelenskyy canceled a trip to Saudi Arabia set for Wednesday.

“We were not invited to this U.S.-Russia meeting, it was a surprise for us and I think for many, too,” Zelenskyy said. “I do not know who goes where and who stays where, honestly I do not care. What I care about is that partners do not misunderstand us.”

“High-level engagement with the U.S. administration without representation from Ukraine allowed Russia to declare that Zelenskyy is finished – an outcome Russia clearly wants,” said Bryn Rosenfeld, assistant professor of government at Cornell University. “The Trump administration’s approach to these meetings clearly hurts Zelenskyy.”

On Tuesday, Trump was also asked about reports that he wanted to include a Russian request that would require Ukraine to stage new elections as part of a peace agreement, and did little to knock down the idea.

“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, but we have essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine — I mean, I hate to say it — but he’s down at 4% approval rating, and where a country has been blown to smithereens,” Trump said.

The new approach has shaken the foundations of the U.S. and European security alliance, with Trump promising to negotiate an end to the war but seemingly ready to offer concessions that Russia seeks without getting anything in return so far.

Already, Russia was staking out its red lines. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brushed off what he called a U.S. proposal to suspend attacks on energy infrastructure, claiming that Moscow doesn’t target civilian installations even though Russian missile attacks have decimated Ukraine’s power grid.

“Our dialogue was, in my opinion, very useful,” Lavrov said after the meeting. “We not only listened, but also heard each other. And I have every reason to believe that the American side has begun to better understand our position.”

And the possibility of restaffing the two countries’ embassies — and potentially lifting sanctions — would erase a point of leverage the U.S. has maintained. The U.S. and Russia had reduced staffing to skeleton crews over the years in tit-for-tat rounds of expulsions over espionage, hacking claims and Russia’s invasion.

Trump did say he would be supportive of European nations putting peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, but made clear the U.S. would not consider doing the same.

European leaders are racing to respond to the new reality. They’re working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and support Kyiv, and are expected to unveil that initiative sometime after German elections on Feb. 23.

The U.S. and Russia didn’t set a date for an expected summit meeting between Trump and Putin. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said they discussed a meeting between the leaders but it was unlikely to take place next week.

The two sides agreed to “lay the groundwork for future cooperation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest” once the war ends, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Ushakov and Lavrov represented the Kremlin at the talks while the U.S. contingent included White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz,Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Rubio. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan was also there.

Trump is determined to “move very quickly” on securing a permanent settlement in Ukraine, Waltz said in a briefing afterward. Rubio said he was convinced of Russia’s willing to engage “in a serious process” on Ukraine, while Witkoff called the meeting a “very, very solid session.”

The talks followed Trump’s landmark phone call with Putin last week in which he reversed key U.S. positions on the war that Russia broadened in February 2022.

Trump described last week’s 90-minute call with Putin as “highly productive” and said they’d likely meet in Saudi Arabia. It was the first publicly announced contact between the Russian leader and a U.S. president since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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(With assistance from Henry Meyer and Courtney McBride.)

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