Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to meet with representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, and begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, POLITICO reports.
During a conversation at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) confirmed to POLITICO that there were plans for Waltz and Witkoff to join Rubio in Saudi Arabia.
Other sources have declined to name Russian officials who will attend, although it has previously been reported that Kirill Dmitriev, who played a crucial role in a recent U.S. prisoner release, will be among them.
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official told POLITICO that news of the talks was a surprise to them, and the Ukrainian government had no plans to send any representatives to the meeting. Another conspicuous absence is President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine-Russia talks, retired General Keith Kellogg.
After a “lengthy and productive” phone call with Putin earlier this week, Trump announced that negotiations to end the war would begin “immediately.” He also suggested that he himself would meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia in the “not-too-distant future,” without specifying dates. Currently, there are reportedly no plans for representatives from any other European nation to be involved in these early talks—a decision that POLITICO suggests “could rankle NATO allies which have publicly urged President Donald Trump to ensure they have a seat at the negotiating table.”
Prior to taking office, Trump stated he could end the Russia-Ukraine conflict on his first day in office—a claim Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov outright rejected, telling Russian state wire service TASS that Russia had not received any “official signals regarding a settlement.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at the Munich Security Conference this week, arguing in a speech that he believes the “time has come” for the establishment of a European army. “Let’s be honest,” he told attendees. “Now we can’t rule out that America might say ‘no’ to Europe on issues that might threaten it.”
