Senior members of the Trump administration are scheduled to convene with high-ranking Russian officials for discussions aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine, as per various sources. National security advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are anticipated to journey to Saudi Arabia for the meeting with Russian counterparts, according to two insiders familiar with the arrangements who spoke to CNN. The meeting is slated to take place in the near future, although the specific Russian attendees have not been disclosed. The Kremlin is reportedly assembling a team comprising top political, intelligence, and economic figures, including Kirill Dmitriev, who played a pivotal role in a recent US prisoner release deal, to engage in direct negotiations with the US.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul has corroborated these plans during an interview at the Munich Security Conference, stating that Rubio, Waltz, and Witkoff are being sent to Saudi Arabia to engage in discussions with Ukrainian and Russian representatives regarding the situation in Ukraine. Rubio, who recently arrived in Israel, also had a conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as confirmed by the State Department. The discussion centered on President Trump’s commitment to resolving the conflict in Ukraine and explored potential collaboration on various bilateral matters.
The US’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, emphasized that Europeans would not be directly involved in the negotiations concerning the conflict in Ukraine. He outlined the ongoing negotiation efforts as following both a Russian and a Ukrainian track simultaneously for expediency. President Trump hinted at a possible meeting with President Putin in Saudi Arabia but emphasized that no formal decision had been reached. He suggested the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the discussions, with Witkoff praising the prince’s role in securing the release of Marc Fogel, an American wrongfully detained earlier in the week.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Sebastian Shukla contributed to this report from Munich.
Users should create an account on CNN.com.
