Trump admin to begin peace talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia Tuesday

US officials are expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday to discuss a peace deal to end the Ukraine war, which began in the early days of the Biden administration and is approaching its third year.

According to Politico, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Monday with President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The Kremlin said Monday morning that Lavrov and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov were en route to Saudi Arabia and will meet with the US officials the following day.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Lavrov and Ushakov "are flying to Riyadh on behalf of" Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that "It is expected that on Tuesday in Riyadh they will hold a meeting with their American counterparts, which will be devoted primarily to the restoration of the entire complex of Russian-American relations."

Trump spoke with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, with Trump saying of his talk with Putin, "We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, 'COMMON SENSE.' We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now."

Trump said his conversation with Zelensky went "very well" and that the Ukrainian leader "wants to make PEACE." Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had not been invited to the Saudi Arabia peace talks, and said in a Meet the Press interview that he will "never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never."