US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it agreed to hold more talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine after an initial meeting that excluded Kyiv, a departure from Washington’s previous approach that rallied US allies to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia to not give “legitimacy” to Tuesday’s meeting between US and Russian officials in Riyadh, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
France plans to host a second meeting to discuss Ukraine and European security on Wednesday, but has this time invited European countries not present earlier this week and Nato ally Canada, said diplomatic sources on Tuesday.
US agrees to meet again with Russia to discuss end to war
US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it agreed to hold more talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine after an initial meeting that excluded Kyiv, a departure from Washington’s previous approach that rallied US allies to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As the 4½-hour meeting in the Saudi capital was under way, Russia hardened its demands, notably insisting it would not tolerate the Nato alliance granting membership to Kyiv.
It was the first time US and Russian officials have sat down together to discuss ways to halt the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Ukraine has said it will not accept any deal imposed without its consent, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated, “There must be no decision over the heads of Ukraine.”
Even before the talks took place, some European politicians accused Trump’s administration of handing free concessions to Moscow last week by ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine and saying it was an illusion for Kyiv to believe it could win back the 20% of its territory now under Russian control.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told reporters in Riyadh that the war must come to a permanent end, and this would involve negotiations over territory.
“Just a practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees,” he said.
Addressing Ukrainian and European concerns, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said no one was being sidelined, the European Union needed to be involved at some point, and any solution must be acceptable to all parties.
Rubio said he had come away convinced that the Russian side was “willing to begin to engage in a serious process to determine how quickly and through what mechanism can an end be brought to this war”.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the two sides agreed to appoint “respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides”.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow it was “not enough” for Nato not to admit Ukraine as a member. She said the alliance must go further by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would join at a future, unspecified date.
“Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently demanded Nato membership as the only way to guarantee Kyiv’s sovereignty and independence from its nuclear-armed neighbour.
As European countries discuss the possibility of contributing peacekeepers to back any Ukraine peace deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Riyadh that Moscow would not accept deployment of Nato troops there, whatever flag they were operating under.
“Of course, this is unacceptable to us,” he said.
The comments by Lavrov and Zakharova signalled that Russia will keep pressing for further concessions in the negotiations. The opening encounter on Tuesday saw Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov — two veterans who have spent a combined 34 years in their current roles — negotiate with three Trump administration officials in their first month on the job.
Russia did not mention offering any concessions and US officials did not claim to have scored any in Tuesday’s meeting, leading observers to doubt whether the talks would turn into serious peace negotiations.
US and Russian teams would work on restoring the countries’ respective diplomatic missions in Washington and Moscow to ease the talks going forward, said Rubio.
Both sides said no date had been set for a meeting between Trump and Putin, which both men say they want.
But the fast-moving diplomacy, beginning with a Putin-Trump phone call only six days ago, has triggered alarm in Ukraine and European capitals that the two leaders could cut a quick deal that ignores their security interests, rewards Moscow for its invasion and leaves Putin free to threaten Ukraine or other countries in the future.
Jana Puglierin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that February 2022, the month of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, showed Europeans they could not depend on Russia, but developments this month were a more significant turning point.
“February 2025 shows us that the Americans no longer feel responsible for European security — and that their interests are fundamentally different from ours,” said Puglierin.
Lavrov said there was “high interest” in lifting economic barriers between the two countries, after the US and other Western countries imposed waves of sanctions on Moscow over the war, seeking to isolate Putin.
Rubio was non-committal when asked whether these might be lifted.
“There are other parties that have sanctions. The European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point, because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed,” he said.
Zelensky postpones Saudi Arabia visit to not give ‘legitimacy’ to US-Russia meeting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia to not give “legitimacy” to Tuesday’s meeting between US and Russian officials in Riyadh, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Speaking earlier on Tuesday in Turkey, Zelensky said he had postponed his visit to the kingdom, which was originally planned for Wednesday, until March 10, saying he did not want “any coincidences”.
“[Ukraine] didn’t want to appear to give anything that happened in Riyadh any legitimacy,” said one of the sources.
Zelensky said in Ankara that he had not been invited to Tuesday’s meeting between delegations of top US and Russian officials, which included the foreign ministers of both countries. The US and Russia said after the talks they had agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“We want no one to decide anything behind our backs ... No decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine,” said Zelensky.
France convenes second meeting on Ukraine
France plans to host a second meeting to discuss Ukraine and European security on Wednesday, but has this time invited European countries not present earlier this week and Nato ally Canada, said diplomatic sources on Tuesday.
Two sources said those invited were Norway, Canada, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium. The format would be hybrid, including video participation, three diplomats said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hosted an emergency meeting with countries including Britain, Germany and Italy, as well as the Nato alliance and European Union (EU) executive.
That was part of efforts to assess how potential security guarantees for Ukraine could look, how Europe should move faster to increase defence spending, and how to move more quickly as the US administration speeds up diplomacy to end the three-year war between Ukraine and Russia.
Some countries were unhappy that the meeting was only for selected leaders and not a full EU summit, EU officials have said.
US will not lower troop numbers in eastern Europe, says Polish president
Poland’s president said on Tuesday that US officials had assured him that Washington did not intend to lower troop numbers in eastern Europe, as he gave a statement to reporters after meeting Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.
Old certainties about Washington’s role in ensuring European security have been upended over the past week, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference in Poland that Nato allies could not assume the US would be present in Europe forever.
However, after meetings with Kellogg on Tuesday and Hegseth on Friday, President Andrzej Duda sought to reassure Poles about Washington’s plans.
“We have been assured. .. that there are absolutely no American intentions to reduce activity here in our part of Europe, especially in terms of security, reducing the number of American soldiers,” he told reporters.
Kellogg will travel to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv following his visit to Poland.
China supports all Ukraine peace efforts, says foreign minister
China supported all efforts conducive to peace talks in Ukraine, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
After Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Wang told the Security Council: “China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks.”
What we know about North Korean troops joining Russia’s war in Ukraine
North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to support Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian, US and South Korean assessments, Pyongyang’s first major involvement in a war since the 1950s.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Camille Shea told the United Nations Security Council in January 2025 that more than 12,000 North Korean troops were in Russia, fighting against Ukrainian forces in the border region of Kursk.
Moscow and Pyongyang initially dismissed reports of the deployment, but in October 2024 Putin did not deny that North Korean troops were in Russia, and a North Korean official has said any such move would be lawful.
According to Kyiv, more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in Russia by early January 2025.
The same month Ukraine’s military said its special operations forces had not seen North Korean troops on the battlefield in Kursk for around three weeks, suggesting they have been forced to withdraw after taking heavy losses.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service said in October 2024 that the first units of North Korean troops trained in Russia had been deployed in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces had staged a surprise incursion that August.
South Korea’s military said in December it had detected signs of North Korea preparing to send more troops and weapons, including suicide drones, to Russia.
Ukraine has named three North Korean generals present in the country: Colonel General Kim Yong Bok, a senior general with command of special forces troops, Colonel General Ri Chang Ho, deputy chief of the general staff and head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Major General Sin Kum Cheol, head of the Main Operational Directorate.
South Korea said in October 2024 that it had used AI facial recognition technology to identify a delegation of dozens of North Korean officers visiting frontline areas in Ukraine, to give guidance on North Korea-made KN-23 ballistic missiles fired at targets there.
The delegation included a key figure in the North’s missile development, identified by analysts at Seoul-based NK PRO as Ri Song Jin, glimpsed in photographs in 2023 while accompanying leader Kim Jong-un to factories that turn out missiles.
The troops had been supplied with Russian military uniforms, weapons and false identification documents ahead of being deployed for combat, it said.
Russia has fired dozens of North Korea-made ballistic missiles and has received large numbers of artillery shells and anti-tank rockets, South Korean, Ukrainian, U.S. and independent researchers have said.
Putin has said a treaty he signed with Kim during a visit to Pyongyang in June 2024 included a mutual assistance clause for each side to help the other repel external aggression.
Analysts say North Korea could benefit from providing weapons and troops by gaining experience and insight from operating on a battlefield.
Pyongyang also appears to be gaining major imports of oil and other products from Russia, according to foreign intelligence agencies and commercial satellite imagery examined by analysts.
A report by a think-tank affiliated with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) estimated that the cash-strapped North earned about $540-million in 2023 from arms sales to Russia.
Kremlin says joining the EU is Ukraine’s sovereign right
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question.
Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “This is the sovereign right of any country.”
“We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that,” said Peskov.
Peskov added, though, that Russia’s position was different when it came to Ukraine joining military alliances.
“There is a completely different position, of course, on security-related issues related to defence or military alliances,” said Peskov.
Turkey’s top refiner stops Russian crude purchases after sanctions
Turkey’s largest oil refiner Tupras has stopped buying Russian crude because of US sanctions announced on 10 January against Russian energy companies and tankers carrying Russian oil, the company said on a call following an earnings report.
“With the latest sanctions imposed, we have stopped buying Urals and we will receive the final cargoes during February,” said Levent Bayar, Tupras executive director of investor relations.
It was not clear if Tupras would stop refined product imports from Russia. Tupras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tupras had become one of the biggest importers of Russian crude since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian oil represented 65% of Turkey’s total oil imports in January-November 2024, according to data from Turkey’s energy regulator. DM