US, Russia agree during Riyadh meeting to start push towards peace in Ukraine

RIYADH, Feb 18 (Reuters) – The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address “irritants” to the US-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and US envoy Steve Witkoff met for 4.5 hours with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia as a follow-up to US President Donald Trump’s telephone call with Russia President Vladimir Putin last week.

They discussed establishing a mechanism to address “irritants to our bilateral relationship” with the goal of normalizing diplomatic relations, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

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The two sides also appointed high-level teams to work on ending the Ukraine conflict “as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides,” she said.

The State Department said the meeting was an important step in an incipient process.

“One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace,” Bruce said.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and the US agreed to establish a process for settling the Ukraine conflict and to remove barriers for diplomatic missions.

The talks were useful, Russian and American delegations listened to and heard each other and agreed to create conditions to fully restore cooperation between the two countries, he said.

Lavrov also said that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable as was the appearance of NATO member troops – even if they were operating there under a different flag.

“We explained to our colleagues today what President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly stressed: that the expansion of NATO, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty,” Lavrov said.

“We explained today that the appearance of armed forces from the same NATO countries, but under a false flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags, does not change anything in this regard. Of course, this is unacceptable to us.”