US, Russia to hold 'follow-up meeting' in Riyadh Tuesday

RIYADH

U.S. and Russian officials are due to meet in Saudi Arabia's capital on Tuesday, a week after foreign ministers from the two nations met there for breakthrough talks.

Delegations from the two sides will "meet in Riyadh on Tuesday," a diplomatic source told AFP on Monday, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talks.

The new sit-down will be "a follow-up meeting to last week's. It is at a lower level than last week, but it is still a sign of progress," the source added without disclosing the names of the representatives from the two sides.

A week ago, U.S. and Russian delegations led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Riyadh for discussions potentially laying the foundation for a summit between U.S. and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Russia and the U.S. agreed to establish a "consultation mechanism" to settle disputes and to appoint negotiators for talks on the war in Ukraine at the end of last week's meeting, the first at that level between the two powers since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022.

The meeting followed a telephone conversation between Trump and Putin earlier in February that upended the standing Western strategy of isolating the Russian president.

Last week, Trump said he was "much more confident" about the possibility of an agreement with Moscow.

When asked by the press at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida about a possible meeting with Vladimir Putin before the end of the month, the American president replied: "probably."

Trump sent shock waves across Europe when he declared his readiness to resume diplomacy with Putin and end the Russia-Ukraine war without the involvement of European nations and Ukraine.

He has appeared to parrot Russian talking points about Ukraine's supposed responsibility for starting the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed the possibility of talks "about Ukraine without Ukraine."

"I'm very disappointed, I hear that they're upset about not having a seat," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

"Today I heard, 'oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."

"I think I have the power to end this war," he said.

Trump said Monday that he will meet with Zelensky as soon as this week to sign a deal that would see the U.S. receive a share of Ukraine's critical mineral and natural resource revenues.

"I will be meeting with President Zelensky. In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement, which would be nice. I'd love to meet him. We'd meet at the Oval Office," Trump told reporters as he hosted French President Emanuel Macron at the White House.

Zelensky wants peace 'this year' 

Zelensky on Monday called for "real, lasting peace" this year as European leaders gathered for a summit in Kiev on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion.

Russia said it would only halt the invasion if a deal can be reached that "suits" its interests and accused Europe of wanting to prolong the fighting.

"We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Türkiye.

Putin's decision to launch what he called a "special military operation" in Feb. 2022 set off the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides and Ukrainian civilians have been killed. Cities across the country's south and east have been flattened and millions forced to flee their homes.

"This year should be the year of the beginning of a real, lasting peace," Zelensky told Kiev's backers in Kiev.

"Putin will not give us peace or give it to us in exchange for something. We have to win peace through strength and wisdom and unity," he added.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also warned that despite opening talks with the United States on how to end the conflict, Putin was not about to back down.

"Putin is trying harder than ever to win this war on the ground. His goal remains Ukraine's capitulation," she said.

She also called the war in Ukraine "the most central and consequential crisis for Europe's future."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has offered to help broker a deal, told the summit he strongly supported "Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence" and said both sides must be represented "fairly" in talks.

Deal that 'suits' Russia 

But as leaders of Ukraine's backers lined up to proclaim support and hail Kiev's resistance, there was one notable absence: the United States.

Trump's return to the White House has threatened to upend the Western coalition, and has brought vital military and financial aid into question at a critical juncture.

His opening of talks with Putin, the false claim that Ukraine "started" the war and verbal attacks on Zelensky have triggered alarm across Europe.

Kiev said Monday it was in the "final stages" of a deal with Washington to give the United States preferential access to rare minerals — one of the sources of disagreement that has exploded over the last week.

Russian officials have been buoyed by Trump's outreach, sensing an opportunity to push their core demands: the roll-back of NATO's military presence in Europe, territorial concessions from Ukraine and the end of Western military support to Kiev.

"We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Turkey.

Putin's spokesman meanwhile accused Europe of prolonging the fighting.

"The Europeans continue on the path of a sanctions nosedive, on the path of conviction in the need to continue the war," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, responding to a fresh package of sanctions levelled by Brussels on Monday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday backed ally Russia's "positive efforts to defuse" the Ukraine crisis, in a call with Putin, Chinese state media reported.

Beijing is a crucial political backer of Russia and has never condemned its invasion. Zelensky has repeatedly called for Xi to help convince Putin to halt the war.

The Ukrainian leader also on Monday refreshed his call for security guarantees from Kiev.'s backers to ensure Russia does not use any ceasefire to rearm and attack again at a later date.

With Trump sceptical of continuing to support Ukraine, Europe has been left debating whether it can fill the void.

Macron was due in Washington later Monday for a meeting with Trump where he said he will tell the Republican: "You cannot be weak in the face of President Putin."