Ukraine: US now understands Russia 'better,' Lavrov says

Commenting on the US-Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump said he would not oppose the Europeans if they wanted to send peacekeepers to Ukraine to provide security guarantees in the event of a peace deal.

"Having troops over there would be fine, I wouldn't object to it at all," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

He also said that Ukraine could have made a deal years ago, and brushed aside Ukraine's concerns about being left out of the Riyadh meeting, saying that the Ukrainians should have entered the talks much earlier.

"I think I have the power to end this war," Trump said.

He also mentioned that he would "probably" meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin before the end of the month.

French President Emmanuel Macron is holding another meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday.

On Monday, Macron hosted at the Elysee an emergency meeting with countries including Britain, Germany and Italy. Representatives from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union were also present.

Wednesday's meeting will include "several European and non-European states," the French president said.

Countries including Norway, Canada, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium were invited, the Reuters news agency cited unnamed sources as saying.

The format of the meeting would be hybrid, including video participation, Reuters added.

In an interview with French regional newspapers, Macron said Paris was not "preparing to send ground troops, which are belligerent to the conflict, to the front" in Ukraine but was considering, alongside Britain, sending "experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone."

The US negotiations with Russia, which kickstarted on Tuesday after three years of no-contact between the two world powers, may not be coming from "a position of strength," warned Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Speaking to DW on Tuesday, Bowman argued that over the past few days, various officials from US President Donald Trump's administration have been "weakening America's negotiating hand."

"It seems like most of the concessions that have been discussed in the last few days are all American concessions and European concessions, and nothing from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin who, after all, started this war," he said.

Bowman said that the Tuesday meeting was "incredibly significant" and showed that Washington planned to "do less in Europe."

"The essential strategic idea behind what the Trump administration is trying to do is the following: that American resources are not infinite, and that the number one threat we confront is [China]. And we have to do more in the Indo-Pacific, and therefore we have to do less in Europe."

Europe has been scrambling to put up a united front against Moscow, potentially without US support, since US President Trump called Russian President Putin last week without coordinating with NATO allies. France on Monday hosted a meeting on Ukraine.

Speaking to DW, Bowman said that he did not believe it was wise for Europe to chart out a more independent course.

"I think any efforts in Paris or elsewhere to try to create alternate centers of power are unwise," he said.

"I think we need to understand that we need each other now more than ever, and we're going to get a far better outcome in Ukraine and Eastern Europe more broadly, if we work together."

Latvia's Foreign Minister, Baiba Braze, said that she believed little would come out of talks between the US and Russia on ending the war in Ukraine, according to Latvian media.

"It seems like everyone was having their own negotiations. But there is little substance to it," Braze was cited by the Baltic news portal Delfi as saying.

"[Russian President Vladimir Putin]  can demand whatever he wants. This is nothing new. What Russia has not achieved on the battlefield, it will not achieve at the negotiating table," she said.

"Putin wanted a three-day war, but three years have passed," she said, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Putin has effectively lost the war."

Braze argued that Russia's war economy was "collapsing" and could not continue to sustain itself.

While Russia's economy seems to have largely weathered the effects of Western sanctions, in recent months it has begun to register substantial inflation and plunging of the value of the ruble against the US dollar.

Following a meeting with US top diplomat Marco Rubio, Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov said there was "high interest" in lifting economic barriers between Moscow and Washington, hinting that the US could lift sanctions soon.

Russian forces have made steady gains in eastern Ukraine over the course of the war, with nearly a fifth of the country's territory now under Moscow's control.

Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters on Tuesday that he has received assurances that the US did not intend to reduce forces on NATO's eastern flank.

"There are no concerns that the US would reduce the level of its presence in our country, that the US would in any way withdraw from its responsibility or co-responsibility for the security of this part of Europe," Duda told reporters in Warsaw. "On the contrary, I hope that thanks to the efforts that President Trump is currently making, the war in Ukraine will end."

The Polish president, who is seen as close to US President Trump, made the statements following a meeting with US envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg.

His comments follow statements by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told a press conference in NATO last week that allies could not assume the US would be present on the continent "forever."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no talks on the future of Ukraine should be held behind the country's back, as US-Russian talks concluded in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Speaking during a visit to Ankara at a joint press conference with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Zelenskyy said that talks should be "fair" and should also involve European countries, including Turkey.

"Ukraine, Europe in a broad sense — and this includes the European Union, Turkey, and the UK — should be involved in conversations and the development of the necessary security guarantees with America regarding the fate of our part of the world," Zelenskyy said.

He also said he postponed a Wednesday visit to Saudi Arabia to March 10. He cited the fact that Ukrainian officials were not invited to the Riyadh talks between Moscow and Washington.

Erdogan meanwhile stressed that Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty were indisputable for Ankara, offering up his country as an "ideal" venue for any upcoming talks.

"Turkey will be an ideal host for the possible talks between Russia, Ukraine and America in the near future," he said, adding that US President Donald Trump's initiative to seek an end to the war aligned with the Turkish policy since the start of the conflict.

Washington understood Moscow's position "better" following Tuesday's high-level talks in Riyadh, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"The conversation, I believe, was very useful. We did not just listen but heard each other, and I have reason to believe the American side has better understood our position," said Lavrov, who headed the Russian delegation in the first talks between the two world powers since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The two countries agreed to establish a process for settling the Ukraine conflict and to remove barriers for diplomatic missions, Lavrov added.

The Russian top diplomat also touched on the issue of NATO expansion, which Moscow had cited as one of its reasons for invading Ukraine. He called it a "direct threat" to Russia and stressed that he communicated to the US delegates that any NATO troops' deployment to Ukraine, even under other flags, would be unacceptable.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was "convinced" that Moscow was willing to engage in a "serious process" to end the war, adding that Washington aimed for a "fair" and "sustainable" solution.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement that the meeting was "an important step forward" toward peace.

Rubio said that European nations would have to be involved in talks on ending the war, and that "extraordinary opportunities existed to partner" with Russia.

We are starting to get reactions now from the US State Department after a meeting between top US and Russian officials over the war in Ukraine. 

The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address issues affecting their relationship and to start finding ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

The State Department said that this effort is still in the early stages.

"One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace," department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said after meetings in Saudi Arabia.

Talks between top US and Russian officials about the war in Ukraine ended after more than four hours.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Saudi Arabia alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said the talks went well.

He said discussions on war would continue through separate negotiation teams in the future.

Ushakov mentioned that conditions were discussed for a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Putin, but no date was set.

The talks in Riyadh might reshape European security, Jana Puglierin, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warned.

"Washington has begun negotiations with Russia over the heads of Ukraine and the other Europeans, and there are fears that these will not only be about ending the war, but also about the future European security architecture," she said.

Puglierin said US President Donald Trump could make concessions previously deemed implausible, including on US and NATO troops stationed in Eastern Europe and further NATO enlargement.

"Europe risks standing powerless on the sidelines as the foundations of European security collapse."

She said the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2025 "destroyed our faith in a collective security order with Russia."

Puglierin said it also highlighted issues of dependence on Russia and China in critical areas.

Last week, US Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a flurry of speeches, questioned both Europe's security commitments and its fundamental democratic principles.

"February 2025 shows us that the Americans no longer feel responsible for European security – and that their interests are fundamentally different from ours," Puglierin said.

Russia says Ukraine cannot join NATO, and a simple refusal to accept the country into the military alliance is also not enough. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that NATO must disavow the Bucharest promises of 2008.

"It is worth noting that a refusal to accept Kyiv into NATO is not enough," Zakharova said.

At a summit in April 2008, NATO declared that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance but provided no plan for their accession.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would not stop Ukraine from joining the European Union.

"Nobody can dictate to another country, and we do not plan on dictating," Peskov said, "but it is completely different when it comes to security issues and military alliances. Here we have a different approach that is well known."

The Russian statements come as top-ranking US and Russian officials are holding talks in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said Ukraine would need security guarantees under any peace deal, and that could include NATO membership.

Ukraine has also expressed hopes of joining the EU, but that is complicated and could take years

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the discussion about possible European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine is too early.

Speaking to public broadcaster ZDF, she echoed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying, "no soldiers will be sent into this hot war." 

Direct US-Russia talks over the war have sparked a debate about what security guarantees Europe could offer as part of a down-the-line deal in Ukraine.

Baerbock said, "peacekeeping is a European task" and emphasized that any agreement regarding Ukraine must involve both Ukrainian and European participation. However, she also stated that a debate around sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine after the war is far too premature. 

Speaking after a European leaders meeting about the issue on Monday, Scholz said having that debate right now was "completely premature" and "highly inappropriate" while the war is ongoing.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told US envoy Keith Kellogg the EU wants to work with Washington for peace in Ukraine, and is ready to do more to arm Kyiv.

"We want to partner with the US to deliver a just and lasting peace for Ukraine," von der Leyen wrote on social media after meeting Kellogg in Brussels.

She also outlined Europe's plans "to scale up defense production and spending, reinforcing both European and Ukrainian military capabilities."

Von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa hosted Kellogg at almost the same time as a meeting was taking place in Saudi Arabia between the US and Russia over the war in Ukraine. 

During the meeting in Brussels, von der Leyen's office said she had "reiterated that any resolution must respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, backed by strong security guarantees."

Saudi Arabia has returned to the diplomatic fold, hosting breakthrough US-Russia talks and an Arab leaders' summit on Gaza.

"It's a big coup for Saudi. The two superpowers come to Riyadh to settle their disagreements," said Ali Shihabi, an advisor to the Saudi government. "It's quite prestigious and affirms the soft power of the kingdom," he told the AFP news agency.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a neutral party in global conflicts. This change comes after the country became isolated following the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The world's leading exporter of crude oil maintains close relations with Russia on energy policy while promising hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The country has also helped in prisoner negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to visit the Kingdom this week on a separate trip arranged before the US-Russia talks were announced. 

On Friday, Riyadh will host an Arab summit to discuss Trump's proposal for a US takeover of Gaza.

Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, told reporters in Riyadh that Russia expects "progress" in economic talks with the United States in the coming months. He was speaking on the sidelines of US-Russia talks on the war in Ukraine.

"We have a series of proposals, which our colleagues are thinking about. And I think that there will, possibly, be progress in the not so distant future, in the next two-three months," Dmitriev said.

Dmitriev, a US-educated former Goldman Sachs banker, played a role in early contacts with Moscow during Trump's first term as president from 2016-2020.

Moscow is hoping US President Donald Trump could lift sanctions imposed over the Ukraine offensive.

"It's very important to understand that US businesses lost around $300 billion from leaving Russia. So there is huge economic toll on many countries from, you know, what's happening right now," Dmitriev said.