US and Russian officials have wrapped up the first round of peace talks on ending the war in Ukraine as they met in Saudi Arabia. It follows European leaders holding a meeting of their own in Paris. Follow updates on this live page.
Tuesday 18 February 2025 13:47, UK
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Earlier, we brought you comments from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who indicated Vladimir Putin is “ready to speak about peace” (see our 9.32am post).
We can now bring you more comments from Peskov, who said Putin will speak with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “if necessary”.
“At the same time, the legal fixation of the agreements is subject to serious discussion, taking into account the reality that speaks of the possibility of challenging the legitimacy of Zelenskyy himself,” he added.
For context: Putin has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Zelenskyy’s presidency after he was elected for a five-year term in 2019.
That term was set to expire last May, but Ukrainian officials said the martial law in the country following Russia’s full-scale invasion mean presidential elections cannot take place.
Putin himself was in power from 2000 to 2008 when Russia’s constitution limited the president to two consecutive terms.
He then served as prime minister before becoming president again in 2012 and, eight years later, drafted an amendment that would allow him to remain president for two more terms.
The US secretary of state has been talking to reporters following the conclusion of talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia today.
Marco Rubio said the objective of upcoming negotiations was to ensure a peace for Ukraine that was “fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved”.
He added: “What will that look like? That’s what this ongoing engagement is going to be about.”
Rubio suggested some of the current economic sanctions against Russia could be lifted as part of a peace settlement.
However, he warned there would have to be “concessions made by all sides,” adding: “We’re not going to predetermine what those are”.
He also dismissed complaints about a lack of Ukrainian involvement in talks so far, telling the reporters: “In order for a conflict to end, everyone has to be OK with it, it has to be acceptable to them.”
Rubio claimed that “the only leader in the world who can make this happen… is President Trump.”
However, the secretary of state also cautioned that “a lot of work remains before we can have a result.”
He said the aim of today’s meeting was to “establish lines of communication” following a long period of silence between Washington and Moscow.
Rubio said this would include re-establishing diplomatic missions in both cities and appointing “high-level” teams to negotiate a peace deal.
He added he was “convinced” that Russia was “willing to begin to engage in a serious process” to end the war.
Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz confirmed that a date for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had yet to be arranged.
Western officials do not believe Russia wants a long-term peace deal over Ukraine, our security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has said.
Speaking from Kyiv, she said: “All the signals that we’ve been getting from Western officials who have been studying the Russian activity on the ground is that there’s no sign of any serious intent to negotiate a long-term settlement.
“Yes, of course, they would like a pause in the fighting, but the expectation is they would have a pause, rearm, and then re-attack.”
Haynes also said people in Kyiv were “incredibly worried that these talks are taking place without a united position with the US and the Ukrainians”.
She said the “key issue” for Ukraine was membership of NATO, something its government “sees as a bit of a red line”.
However, Haynes said officials in Kyiv had accepted that such an arrangement would probably not be part of an “immediate” peace deal – but they have not given up on joining the military alliance longer-term.
She added that the US was “calling the shots” while Ukraine “watches nervously”.
More reaction from the talks in Saudi Arabia, this time from the US.
The State Department says US secretary of state Marco Rubio agreed with Russian officials to establish a “consultation mechanism to address irritants to the US-Russia relationship”.
It added Rubio and Sergei Lavrov agreed to appoint high-level teams to begin working on a path to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible.
We’ll bring you more reaction from the talks as we get it.
The first round of talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia have now finished.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the negotiations “went well” with conditions for a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin being discussed, but no date agreed.
Talks lasted four-and-a-half hours, with Ushakov saying negotiators have been agreed with the US to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said the officials treated each other in a respectful manner, but added it was “too early to talk about compromises”.
As we’ve been reporting, talks between US and Russian officials on the war in Ukraine are under way in Saudi Arabia.
The meeting follows emergency talks between European leaders in Paris yesterday.
Could this mark a turning point for the war? Watch below…
Earlier this morning, we told you the US envoy for Ukraine had met the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels (see our 9.58am post).
Keith Kellogg has now met the European Council’s president, who said “peace cannot be a simple ceasefire”.
In a post on social media site X, Antonio Costa said: “We need an agreement that will ensure a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine and security in Europe.
“Ukraine can count on Europe. We are ready to continue to work constructively with the US to ensure peace and security.”
A suspected Ukrainian drone strike on an oil pumping station in Russia is set to disrupt supplies for up to two months, it has been claimed.
It comes after the facility and the Ilsky oil refinery, both in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, were reportedly damaged in attacks during the early hours of Monday.
A source at Ukraine’s SBU security service said its military was responsible and claimed the sites had been helping to support Russia’s military efforts in Ukraine.
The Kropotkinskaya pumping station supports Kazakhstan’s main oil export pipeline, which runs through Russia before the oil is transferred to tankers for overseas delivery. It accounts for around 1% of daily supplies globally.
The pipeline is run by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, whose shareholders include US energy giants Chevron and ExxonMobil. Russia also has a 24% stake.
Operations were said to have been suspended yesterday following the bombing, but the extent of the damage was unclear.
However, Russian oil transporting company Transneft has now said volumes being supplied from Kazakhstan are likely to reduce by about 30% in the coming weeks as a result of disruption caused by the attack.
The firm added that it could take “up to two months” to repair the damage.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, claimed disruption to the pipeline’s operation “could stop oil pumping, unbalance the market, increase oil price spikes and cause direct damage to American companies.”
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
Moscow is framing the talks as something everyone will benefit from, suggesting they’re doing the whole world a favour by sitting down with the Americans.
“Better relations between us will allow us to solve a large number of global tasks and problems that the world is currently facing,” Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, told Russian state media in Riyadh ahead of the discussions.
Dmitriev isn’t at the negotiating table itself, but he is in the Saudi capital to focus on the “economic aspect” of the talks.
It’s certainly true that the resumption of ties between Russia and the US opens the door to other areas of cooperation. But I’m not sure Moscow’s intentions are as altruistic as Dmitriev claims.
Just take a look at what else he said in the context of economic cooperation: “American business has lost more than $300bn by leaving the Russian market.
“The US and many other countries are beginning to understand that the Russian market is extremely attractive and that they need to be present there.
“Finding joint economic paths, positive solutions to issues, is extremely important.”
You don’t have to read between the lines very deeply to see what the Kremlin hopes to gain from “economic cooperation”.
The only way the big multinationals will return to Russia is if sanctions are removed. That is the ultimate prize for Moscow and it’s what they mean by “joint economic paths”.
By framing things financially, Moscow is trying to appeal to Donald Trump’s business background – hoping that cold, hard economics will win the day.
Ukraine “does not know what to expect” from the US, the leader of the country’s Golos party has said.
US and Russian officials are currently meeting in Saudi Arabia to begin peace talks over the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to our presenter Gareth Barlow, Kira Rudik said: “We have not heard the main thing from the US, which should be a baseline for all kinds of agreements and negotiations, which is the security guarantees.
“How do we make sure that Russia would not attack us again? How do we make sure that Russia will keep their part of the bargain?”
Turning more specifically to European security, Rudik said Ukraine was looking forward to “really strong decisions” on allies ramping up defence spending.
“We cannot change our geographical location, so we have to work together against the threat from the east,” she added.
“It will be naive to hope that this threat will disappear anytime soon.”
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