According to multiple sources, top Trump administration officials will meet with senior Russian officials to begin talks aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict.
National security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with senior Russian officials, according to two sources familiar with the plans. One of the sources stated that the meeting would take place in the coming days.
The sources declined to say which Russian officials would be in attendance, but CNN has previously reported that the Kremlin is assembling a high-level negotiating team to engage in direct talks with the US, including top-level political, intelligence, and economic figures, as well as Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian official who played a key role behind the scenes in a recent US prisoner release deal.
President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that negotiations to end the nearly three-year Ukraine war will begin “immediately” following a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call, the first known conversation between the presidents since Trump took office last month, came as Trump made it clear to his advisers that he wants the Ukraine conflict resolved quickly.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul confirmed the plans in an interview with Politico at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, saying, “Rubio, Waltz, and Witkoff (are) being dispatched to Saudi Arabia to talk to the Ukrainians and the Russians about Ukraine.”
Trump hinted earlier this week that he might meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia in the “not-too-distant future,” but added that no formal decision had been made. “We think we will probably meet in Saudi Arabia, the first meeting,” Trump said after speaking with Putin by phone on Wednesday.
The president indicated that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would participate in the discussions. Witkoff also claimed that the Saudi crown prince was “instrumental” in the release of wrongfully detained American Marc Fogel this week.
The State Department previously announced that Rubio would visit Saudi Arabia in the coming days as part of a larger trip to Munich and the Middle East. Rubio arrived in Israel on Saturday and spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier that day, according to a State Department statement.
“The Secretary reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to resolving the conflict in Ukraine,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “In addition, they discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on a number of other bilateral issues.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the Lavrov-Rubio conversation as “a mutual commitment to cooperate on current international issues, including the resolution of the situation around Ukraine” and the Middle East crisis. According to the ministry, the two agreed to maintain regular contact, including in preparation for a high-level Russian-American meeting.
Trump’s envoy says Russia must make concessions
Rubio’s call comes as the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, stated on Saturday that Moscow must make concessions to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Kellogg stated during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference that the concessions would primarily concern territorial issues and possibly the renunciation of the use of force.
According to the American diplomat, Putin is “not going to downsize his military forces,” but the US hopes “to force” him into actions he is “uncomfortable with.”
Kellogg believes the US could accomplish this by disrupting Russia’s newly formed alliances, such as those with Iran, North Korea, and China, which did not exist just a few years ago.
Kellogg also suggested that the US could put pressure on Putin’s oil revenue through stricter sanctions.
“What drives Russia? It is actually a petrostate. Seventy percent of the money they are getting to fund this war is coming from petro, oil, and gas,” Kellogg noted, adding that the US must start employing sanctions that break Moscow’s “economic back.”
Trump has previously refused to say what concessions Russia should make to end the war in Ukraine.
“It is too early to predict what will happen.” Perhaps Russia will give up a lot. Perhaps they will not. “Everything depends on what happens,” he said Thursday.
Kellogg also stated on Saturday that Europeans will not be present at the negotiating table to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
“The answer is no,” Kellogg said at an event held in conjunction with the Munich Security Conference.
The Ukrainians will be there, “of course,” Kellogg stated. “It would be foolish to say (Ukraine) wouldn’t.”
Regarding the Europeans, Kellogg stated that he comes from a “school of realism” and that, looking back at the previous Minsk II agreement, “there was a lot of people at the table who really had no ability to execute some type of peace process, and it failed miserably.”
The Minsk II agreement was reached in the Belarusian capital in 2015 in an effort to end a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. The rare diplomatic effort brought together leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France, with the goal of restoring peace to regions seized by pro-Russian separatists in 2014. Despite its lofty goals, the agreement encountered difficulties in implementation, ultimately failing to bring long-term stability to the region.
Kellogg referred to the current efforts to negotiate a peace deal as “dual track.”
“You have a Russian track going on. “At the same time, we have a Ukrainian track going on,” he explained. “So, if you look at the news, you can see that (Trump’s) Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is involved because he knows the Russian line. In addition, I am working on the American-Ukrainian allied line. “We are doing that for speed.”
