A member of Russia's delegation that met with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 18 to discuss ending the war in Ukraine has said the talks were "not bad," but it was "hard to say" if the two sides' interests were converging.
Speaking to the pro-Kremlin Channel One Russia, Yuri Ushakov, an advisor to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, said it was a "very serious discussion of all the issues we wanted to touch upon."
"We have agreed to take account of each other's interests and develop bilateral relations, since both Moscow and Washington are interested in this," he added.
A Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met a U.S. delegation led by State Secretary Marco Rubio, the first official face-to-face contact between the two sides since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking after the talks, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the meeting was "an important step forward," but added: "One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace."
Ushakov also said a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin were discussed, but it was unlikely to take place next week as had been previously speculated.
Yet, U.S negotiator Mike Waltz stressed that Trump is determined to move very quickly on talks over a potential peace deal in Ukraine, adding that "an endless war in Europe is not acceptable to Trump."
Separate teams of negotiators from the United States and Russia will start communicating on Ukraine "in due course," according to Ushakov.
The participants of the meeting in Riyadh also decided to restore embassy staffing for further diplomatic missions.
"We're going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits," Rubio said.
Answering a question about Europe's absence in Saudi Arabia, Rubio siad that "no one is being sidelined here."
He added that "some very positive things for the United States, for Europe, for Ukraine, for the world" could emerge, but "the conflict" must end first.
"In order for a conflict to end, everyone in that conflict has to be okay with it, it has to be acceptable to them," Rubio said.
"Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one," he added.
Russia and the U.S. also held separate talks on economic cooperation, including on global energy prices, Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters.
Dmitriev added that the recent meeting between Russia and the U.S. has "rejected" the logic of talks under the Joe Biden administration.
"There's a new logic where we need to talk and understand what we agree upon and if there are differences we need to understand what they are," he said.
Though the U.S. and Russia met without Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky will also head to Saudi Arabia this week.
NBC reported that the intention is for the U.S. to host a bilateral meeting with Russia, followed by a bilateral meeting with Ukraine, and culminating with talks together.
Chris York
(Updated: )
