US, Russia meet on Ukraine ceasefire negotiations, Europe sidelined: what to know.

Posted by Admin February 18, 2025 World

In the first major negotiations for a ceasefire in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago, U.S. officials and their Russian counterparts met in Saudi Arabia after refusing to include Ukraine or other European countries in the talks.

As the gathering wrapped on Tuesday, it was still unclear on what terms the bloody conflict could stop. And Ukraine and its European allies questioned whether a deal guaranteeing lasting security could be reached at all without the invaded country’s input.

US, Russia agree to slight diplomatic thaw

The meeting represented the first thaw in U.S.-Russia relations in years, even amid accusations that the U.S. was making concessions to Russia by holding direct talks in the first place. The negotiations covered security guarantees and territory, according to the U.S. delegation.

President Donald Trump kick-started the talks last week with a call to Russian President Vladimir Putin – the first direct call from a U.S. leader since the war began. Trump and Putin do not have another call scheduled in the near future, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, agreed to put together “high-level teams” that could negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, according to Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for Rubio. They also agreed to take the first steps in normalizing the fractured diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Russia and set up a way for the two countries to “address irritants” between them.

Trump “wants to stop the killing,” and is “the only leader in the world who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to that,” according to the State Department statement.

Russia says shutting Ukraine out of NATO ‘not enough’

The meeting came as the Trump administration announced multiple changes in direction from the prior administration’s policy on the Ukraine war, including taking Ukraine’s NATO membership and a return to its borders before Russia’s invasions off the table.

During a trip to Europe last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Ukraine’s admittance to NATO was not a realistic expectation to resolve the conflict, breaking with European allies of the U.S. who have maintained since 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a member. But amid the talks in Saudi Arabia, Russia demanded that NATO also rescind that future promise.

Shutting Ukraine out of NATO for the time being was “not enough,” Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Tuesday. “Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent.”

Ukraine, Europe sidelined from negotiations

Meanwhile, Ukraine bristled at being shut out of negotiations that may be key to its future. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would need “robust” security guarantees to ensure Russia would not break a ceasefire deal and launch another invasion.

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine… and our people,” he told NBC “Meet the Press” on Friday. “The war in Ukraine is against us, and it is our human losses,” he said.

Zelenskyy originally planned a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that he said was unrelated to the talks before postponing it to March as the U.S. and Russia concluded their meeting.

Trump fired back later, telling reporters, “I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren’t invited. Well, you’ve been there for three years.”

Other European leaders have also fumed at the U.S. pushing forward on the talks with Russia without Europe’s cooperation, holding their own emergency meeting in Paris.

European leaders left the meeting, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, without an agreement on peacekeeping troops that could be deployed to the country as part of security framework for Ukraine.

It is “completely premature and completely the wrong time to have this discussion now,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said of the talks. “I want to say that, quite frankly, people are talking over Ukraine’s head about the outcome of peace talks that have not taken place and to which Ukraine has not said yes.”

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was prepared to send British troops into Ukraine to guarantee its security post-ceasefire. “But there must be a U.S. backstop because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” he added.

Trump said Tuesday as he took questions from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he’d support the initiative if European leaders agree to it. “I would not object to to it at all,” Trump said.

Contributing: Reuters, USA TODAY reporter Francesca Chambers