US and Russia hold talks on Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia
Won't open a new thread for this. I have not chased "properly vetted" news source, so just relying on Al Jazeera, which sources the article to:
> Al Jazeera and news agencies
"News agencies" for them typically means Reuters.
Anyway.
US Secretary of State Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov met in the company of other officials in Saudi Arabia, which counts friendly for both sides. Basically this is a first touch, where they outlined some generic positions and agreed that they'll talk more.
Question is when Trump and Putin will meet. And where. That will be important. If one of them visits the other in his country that will signal who has the stronger position.
Despite neither Ukrainian nor European politicians, diplomats were invited, Zelensky also flew to Saudi Arabia. He said Ukraine wants security guarantees, and that they won't recognize anything as Russian territory.
I find this line interesting:
> Peskov also acknowledged that Ukraine has the right to join the European Union, but said Moscow has “a completely different position” regarding military alliances, such as NATO.
So according to them, whatever left from Ukraine can join EU, but not NATO.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/18/us-russia-talks-sideline-ukraine-and-europe
Couple more closely related articles from same media outlet. Perhaps will post them too.