U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and members of the delegations attend talks at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia February 18, 2025. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
RIYADH (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials said on Tuesday after talks with a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia that all sides will need to make concessions in order to bring about an end to the three-year-old Ukraine war.
"Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the talks in Riyadh.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, also part of the U.S. delegation alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff, told reporters that no date had been set for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. delegation said negotiations would include discussions about territory and security guarantees for Ukraine. Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine.
Rubio said Trump wants to move quickly to try to bring an end to the war, and that the goal is a fair, enduring and sustainable agreement.
Amid concerns in Ukraine and among European allies about the U.S.-led effort, Rubio said the goal is an agreement that is "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."
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; editing by Ed Osmond and Kevin Liffey)
