National security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with senior Russian officials in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting is expected to take place in the coming days.
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. 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 being dispatched to Saudi to talk to the Ukrainians and the Russians about Ukraine.” 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.” Rubio’s call comes as the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, 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. “I think that’s not going to happen,” added Kellogg, in response to a reporter’s question about whether the Ukrainians and Europeans would be at the table directly. The Ukrainians will be present “of course,” Kellogg said. “It would be foolish to say wouldn’t.” Kellogg described the 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 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.” President Donald Trump indicated earlier this week that he could meet with Russian President Vladimir 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 of a potential meeting with Putin, hours after the two spoke 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 earlier this week. CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Sebastian Shukla in Munich contributed to this report.
UKRAINE RUSSIA DIPLOMACY PEACE TALKS SAUDI ARABIA
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