Marco Rubio says Russia 'serious' about ending Ukraine war, after ...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Russia is ready to start a "serious process" on ending the war in Ukraine, after meeting without Kyiv at the table. 

The four-hour gathering in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh on Tuesday marked the first time US and Russian officials have sat down together to discuss ways to halt the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. 

"Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one," said Mr Rubio, adding he left the meeting convinced that Moscow was "willing to begin to engage in a serious process to determine how quickly and through what mechanism can an end be brought to this war".

The US delegation said negotiations would include discussions about territory and security guarantees for Ukraine. Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine.

Mr Rubio said the White House wanted to move quickly to try to bring an end to the war, and that the goal is a fair, enduring and sustainable agreement.

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Amid concerns in Ukraine and among European allies about the US-led effort, Mr Rubio said the goal was an agreement "acceptable to everyone involved in it, and that obviously includes Ukraine, but also our partners in Europe, and, of course, the Russian side as well."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kyiv would not accept any deal imposed on it without its consent.

Speaking in Turkiye on the eve of the talks that he was not invited to, he said Kyiv would not "recognise any things or any agreements about us without us". 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was "high interest" in lifting economic barriers between the two countries, after the US and other Western nations imposed waves of sanctions on Moscow over the war.

Mr Rubio was non-committal when asked whether these might be lifted.

Even before the talks took place, US President Donald Trump was accused by some European politicians of handing free concessions to Moscow last week by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and saying it was an illusion for Kyiv to believe it could win back the 20 per cent of its territory now under Russian control.

US national security adviser Mike Waltz told reporters in Riyadh that the war must come to a permanent end, and this would involve negotiations over territory.

"Just a practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there's going to be discussion of security guarantees," he said.

But even while the meeting in the Saudi capital was under way, Russia hardened its demands.

New Russian demands

Mr Lavrov also said that Moscow would not accept the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine, whatever flag they were operating under. 

"Of course, this is unacceptable to us," he said.

Both sides said no date had been set for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which both men say they want.

But the fast-moving diplomacy, beginning with a Putin-Trump phone call only six days earlier, has triggered alarm in Ukraine and European capitals that the two leaders could cut a quick deal that ignores their security interests, rewards Moscow for its invasion and leaves Putin free to threaten Ukraine or other countries in the future.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the two sides agreed to appoint "respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides".

Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov told reporters after more than four hours of talks: "It was a very serious conversation on all the questions we wanted to touch upon."

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The US has called initial talks with Russia "an important first step" to ending the war in Ukraine at a summit lacking Ukrainian representatives.

Russia offered less detail on the outcome of the talks, saying: "We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and agreed that separate teams of negotiators will be in touch on this topic in due course."

"It is still difficult to talk about a specific date for a meeting between the two leaders," said Mr Ushakov.

Russia sketched out some of its perspectives on future talks to ending the fighting in Ukraine, arguing that settling the war required a reorganisation of Europe's defence agreements.

Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat on its flank.

Before invading Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded NATO pull out of central and eastern Europe.

European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris a day earlier than the Riyadh talks, but struggled to put on a united front. 

Isolated by the West for three years, Russia is hoping for a "restoration" of ties with the United States and a comeback to the international arena. 

AFP/Reuters