CNN
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According to multiple sources, the Trump administration’s chief executive will meet with senior Russian officials to begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle Eastern envoy Steve Witkov are planning to travel to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Russian officials, national security adviser Mike Waltz is familiar with the two A source told CNN. One source said the meeting will take place in the next few days.
Sources have declined to see which Russian officials will be present, but CNN previously said it was a high-ranking experience for the Kremlin to engage in in-person meetings with the US, including top-level politics, intelligence, economic figures, Kirill and more. They report that they are gathering negotiation teams of their level. Dmitriev, a Russian official, played an important behind the scenes role in the recent US prisoner release agreement.
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that negotiations to end the near Ukrainian war would begin “quickly” after making a “long and productive” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call, which was the first known conversation since Trump took office last month, came when Trump revealed to his advisers who want to lead the Ukrainian conflict to a quick end.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCall also confirmed the plan in an interview with Politico at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, saying, “Rubio, Waltz and Witkov () will be sent to the Saudi Arabia to join Ukrainians and Russians. I’ll talk about Ukraine.”
Earlier this week, Trump showed he could meet with Putin from Saudi Arabia in a “not too distant future,” but warned that no official decision had been made. “I think we’re going to meet in Saudi Arabia, perhaps our first meeting,” Trump said after speaking to Putin on Wednesday.
The president has shown that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will play a role in the debate. Witkov also said the Saudi Arabian crown prince was “instrumental” in the release of American Mark Vogel, who was unfairly detained this week.
The State Department had previously announced that Rubio would travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming days as part of a larger trip to Munich and the Middle East. The State Department said Rubio, who landed in Israel on Saturday, called out earlier in the day as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“The secretary reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to ending the conflict in Ukraine,” said State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce. “In addition, they discussed opportunities to potentially cooperate with many other bilateral issues.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry characterized the conversation by Lavrov Rubio as “a mutual commitment to cooperate with current international issues, including resolving the situation around Ukraine.” The two agreed to maintain regular communications, including preparing for high-level meetings for Russian Americans, the ministry said.
Rubio’s call, when Trump’s Russian Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday that Moscow must make concessions to end the war in Ukraine.
The concessions mainly include territorial issues and perhaps abandonment of the use of force, Kellogg told a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference.
Putin “is not intending to reduce the military,” the American diplomat said, but the US hopes he “forces” him to “uncomfort” behavior.
Kellogg said the US could achieve this by disrupting alliances such as Iran, North Korea and China, which did not exist a few years ago.
Kellogg also said the US could put pressure on Putin’s oil revenues through more severe sanctions.
“What’s driving Russia? It’s really oil. 70% of the money they fund this war comes from Peter, oil and gas,” Kellogg points out. added that the US must begin to adopt sanctions that break Moscow’s “economic back.”
Trump had previously been in the way when asked what concessions Russia should have to make to end the war in Ukraine.
“It’s too early to say what will happen. Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won’t. It all depends on what will happen,” he said Thursday.
Kellogg also said on Saturday that Europeans were not at the negotiation table when they were trying to reach a solution to the war in Ukraine.
“The answer is no,” Kellogg said at an event on the Munich Security Conference’s connection.
The Ukrainians would “of course” attend, Kellogg said. “(Ukraine) would be foolish to say they wouldn’t.”
As for Europeans, Kellogg said he came from the “school of realism” and, looking back at the previous Minsk II agreement, “there were many people at the table who were not capable of carrying out some type of peace process. , and it failed miserably.”
The Minsk II Agreement was negotiated in the Belarus capital in 2015 to end a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. Rare diplomatic efforts have brought together leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France to aim to restore peace in the regions seized by Russian separatists in 2014. Despite its ambitious goals, the agreement faced challenges in implementation and ultimately failed to provide sustained stability. region.
Kellogg described current efforts to negotiate peace agreements as “dual track.”
“The Russian trucks are ongoing, and at the same time, the Ukrainian trucks are ongoing,” he said. “So, when you see the news, you see that he has a Russian line, so he has a (Trump) envoy of Steve Witkov in the Middle East. And I’m in America and Afria. We also work on the Alliance Line. We do that for speed.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Sebastian Shukla contributed to this report.
