US Secretary of State Marco Rubio touched down in Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of talks with Russian officials to end Vladimir Putin’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov will fly to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to take part in the talks set for Tuesday.
"They are expected to hold a meeting with their American counterparts on Tuesday, which will focus primarily on restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations," Peskov said.
"It will also be devoted to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement and the organisation of a meeting between the two presidents."
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had not been invited to attend the discussions.
"Ukraine will not take part. Ukraine did not know anything about it," he said, speaking from from the United Arab Emirates, where he was on a state visit.
"Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise ... any agreements about us without us."
The talks come after Donald Trump last week spoke to Putin by phone and ordered top officials to begin negotiations on the war, which he repeatedly vowed to end during his presidential campaign.
However, Trump has been hit with a backlash for sidelining Ukraine, and European nations, from at least some of the talks with Russia.
His administration has also been accused of signing away annexed Crimea to remain in Russian hands even before the talks have started.
European leaders were meeting for a crisis meeting in Paris, with Britain and other nations pledging to put peace-keeping forces into Ukraine.
US top diplomat Rubio, who spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, will meet the senior Russian officials in Saudi Arabia alongside Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The discussions will be among the first high-level in-person discussions in years between Russian and US officials and are meant to precede a meeting between the US and Russian presidents.
Rubio on Sunday said the coming weeks and days would determine whether Putin is serious about making peace, with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy saying last year that there was no evidence that the Russian president was ready to end the conflict despite the huge Russian military losses.
Mr Zelensky, who arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, said he also intended to visit Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but no dates were set.
He said he had no plans to meet Russian or US officials and Ukraine is not believed to be invited to the Saudi-hosted talks.
On the battlefield, Russia launched 147 drones to attack Ukraine overnight including in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, Ukrainian military and officials said on Monday.
Ukraine’s air force reportedly shot down 83 drones and 59 more did not reach their targets likely due to electronic countermeasures.
