CNN
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Top Trump administration officials are set to meet with senior Russian officials to begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, according to multiple sources.
National security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to travel to Saudi Arabia for the meeting with senior Russian officials, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN. One of the sources said the meeting will take place in the coming days.
The sources declined to say which Russian officials would be in attendance, but CNN has previously reported the Kremlin is assembling a high-level negotiating team to engage in direct talks with the US, including top-level political, intelligence and economic figures, and Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian official who played a key behind-the-scenes role in a recent US prisoner release deal.
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that negotiations to end the nearly three-year Ukraine war will start “immediately” after holding a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call, which was the first known conversation between the presidents since Trump assumed office last month, came as Trump makes clear to his advisers he wants to bring the Ukraine conflict to a swift end.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul also confirmed the plans during an interview with Politico at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, saying, “Rubio and Waltz and Witkoff (are) being dispatched to Saudi to talk to the Ukrainians and the Russians about Ukraine.”
Trump indicated earlier this week that he could meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia in the “not-too-distant future,” but cautioned that no formal decision had been made. “We think we’re going to probably meet in Saudi Arabia, the first meeting,” Trump said after he spoke to Putin by phone Wednesday.
The president indicated that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would play a role in the discussions. Witkoff also said the Saudi crown prince was “instrumental” in the release of wrongfully detained American Marc Fogel this week.
The State Department had previously announced Rubio would travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming days as part of a larger trip to Munich and the Middle East. Rubio, who landed in Israel on Saturday, held a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier in the day, the State Department said in a statement.
“The Secretary re-affirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “In addition, they discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on a number of other bilateral issues.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry characterized the Lavrov-Rubio conversation as “a mutual commitment to cooperate on current international issues, including the resolution of the situation around Ukraine” as well the Middle East crisis. The two agreed to maintain regular contact, including to prepare for a high-level Russian-American meeting, the ministry said.
Rubio’s call comes as the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said Saturday that Moscow would have to make concessions to end the war in Ukraine.
The concessions would primarily involve territorial matters and possibly the renunciation of the use of force, Kellogg told a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference.
Putin is “not going to downsize his military forces,” the American diplomat said, but the US hopes “to force” him into actions he is “uncomfortable with.”
Kellogg said the US could achieve this by disrupting Russia’s recently formed alliances — such as those with Iran, North Korea and China — that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
Kellogg also said the US could put pressure on Putin’s oil revenue through stricter sanctions.
“What is driving Russia? It’s really a petrostate. Seventy percent of the money they are getting to fund this war is coming from petro, oil and gas,” Kellogg noted, adding that the US must start employing sanctions that break Moscow’s “economic back.”
Trump has previously demurred when asked what concessions Russia should have to make to end the war in Ukraine.
“It’s too early to say what’s going to happen. Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won’t. It’s all dependent on what is going to happen,” he said Thursday.
Kellogg also said Saturday that Europeans will not be at the negotiating table when trying to reach a solution to the war in Ukraine.
“The answer is no,” Kellogg said at an event on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
The Ukrainians will be present “of course,” Kellogg said. “It would be foolish to say (Ukraine) wouldn’t.”
As for the Europeans, Kellogg said that he comes from a “school of realism” and that looking back at the previous Minsk II agreement, “there was a lot of people at the table that really had no ability to execute some type of peace process, and it failed miserably.”
The Minsk II agreement was negotiated in the Belarusian capital in 2015 in a bid to end a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. The rare diplomatic effort brought together leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, aiming to restore peace in regions seized by pro-Russian separatists in 2014. Despite its ambitious goals, the agreement faced challenges in implementation, ultimately failing to bring lasting stability to the region.
Kellogg described the current efforts at negotiating a peace deal as “dual track.”
“You got a Russian track going on. At the same time, we’ve got a Ukrainian track going on,” he said. “So if you look at the news you see that you got the (Trump) envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff is involved because he’s got the Russian line. And I’m working American-Ukrainian allied line as well. We’re doing that for speed.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Sebastian Shukla contributed to this report.
