Top U.S. officials are heading to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to meet with Russia about the war in Ukraine, according to reports.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Michael Waltz, and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian officials who have not yet been named, in what came as a surprise to Ukraine as they were were not invited to the meeting, according to Politico.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who previously chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, indicated to Reuters that the goal of the discussion was to arrange a meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "to finally bring peace and end this conflict."
The news of a meeting between the United States and Russia comes as talks have accelerated over the past week after Trump spoke with Putin, with both agreeing to "start negotiations immediately."
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Those talks continued over the weekend at the Munich Security Conference, with Trump's special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict saying that Europe would not be involved in any peace talks. Keith Kellogg, the special envoy, added that the Ukrainians would "of course" be included in the negotiations.
Zelensky, for his part, met with Vice President JD Vance in Munich on Friday. Vance expressed the United States's desire for a "durable, lasting peace" in Eastern Europe, while Zelensky stressed that Ukraine needs "real security guarantees" and a "plan of how to stop Putin" in any negotiated end to the three-year war.