Russia-US talks end; no date set for Trump-Putin meeting – The Tribune

The talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia have wrapped up, a senior Kremlin official told Russian state TV on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Riyadh alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, told Russia’s Channel One that no date has been set yet for a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

He said the meeting was “unlikely” to take place next week.

“The delegations of the two countries need to work closely together. We are ready for this, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders,” Ushakov said.

The top diplomats from Russia and the US met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine—talks that represented a rapid and major change in American foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which comes as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country won’t accept any outcome from this week’s talks if Kyiv doesn’t take part. European allies have also expressed concerns they are being sidelined.

Beyond Ukraine, the meeting—attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials—is expected to focus on thawing relations between the two countries, whose ties have fallen to their lowest level in decades. It is meant to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.