Senior U.S. Officials on Their Way to Negotiate with Russia to End the Ukraine War

Senior officials of the Trump administration will meet with senior Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to initiate negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine war. According to CNN, Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Steve Witkoff, Trump's Special Representative for Middle East Affairs, will participate in these talks. Although the names of the Russian officials participating in the negotiations have not yet been disclosed, news sources had previously reported that the Kremlin is forming a high-level team for direct talks with the U.S. This team includes political, intelligence, and economic officials, and there is a possibility that Kirill Dmitriev, a key figure in Russia who played a role in prisoner exchange negotiations with the U.S., may also be present. Meanwhile, Keith Kellogg, Trump's Special Representative for Russia and Ukraine, announced that European officials will not participate in the Ukraine peace negotiations. He stated on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, "Ukraine will definitely participate in the talks, but Europe's role is unnecessary, and the unsuccessful experience of the Minsk 2 agreement showed that the presence of multiple actors without real enforcement power only leads to the failure of the peace process." These negotiations were planned following a long and "very constructive" conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. Donald Trump had previously stated that talks to end the Ukraine war would begin "immediately."