A meeting between delegations from the United States and Russia is scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, February 18. The parties will discuss potential negotiations aimed at ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.
According to American media reports, the following representatives will attend the meeting with the Russians:
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
- National Security Advisor to the President Michael Waltz,
- and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Vitkoff.
Who might represent Russia
It is currently unclear who will lead the Russian delegation at the meeting. Meanwhile, Western media suggest that it could be:
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
- possibly with the participation of Putin's assistant Yuri Ushakov,
- as well as the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin.
Possible formats: US-Russia, US-Ukraine, Ukraine-Russia-US
According to NBC, the American side did not invite Ukraine to this meeting with the Russians in Saudi Arabia.
This is attributed to Washington's desire to conduct a bilateral meeting with Russia first, after which a bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian delegation is supposedly planned, followed by joint negotiations, as stated in the NBC publication.