Trump team heads towards Saudi Arabia, Russia-Ukrainian peace talks begin

Senior administration officials Trump are heading to Saudi Arabia to start peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, according to a Republican lawmaker and two US officials familiar with the plan.

That's what Politico media reported.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz will join Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the envoy of the president in the Middle East, in the coming days to start talks on ending the war.

However, Trump's special envoy for the Ukraine-Russia talks, retired General Keith Kellogg, will not be present, officials said.

Officials also said there are no plans for representatives of other major European powers to join the talks. This could burden NATO allies, who have publicly asked President Donald Trump to secure a seat at the negotiating table.

The meeting could mark a major moment in Trump's search for a peace process and would also mark the first major meeting of Russian and Ukrainian representatives since the beginning of the war in 2022.

Mike McCaul, a republican lawmaker from Texas, confirmed plans that Waltz and Wtkoff join Rubyos in Saudi Arabia to start talks between the two warring parties during an interview in Pub POLITICO in the Manures of the Munich Security Conference.

Two American officials, who were given anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations issues, confirmed the plans, but did not provide further details about the meetings, including which Ukrainian or Russian negotiators would participate. A spokesman for the Ukrainian government and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that he expects to hold a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. “We finally expect to meet”, he said. We'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can do something”.

At Munich's conference, senior European officials stressed that Ukraine should be directly involved in any talks between Trump and Putin.

The “will have peace only if Ukraine's sovereignty is secured”, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the conference Saturday. Thus, a definite peace will never find our support.

McCaul, who is former chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed. The President wants peace. But there must be an agreement where Ukrainians are on the table now”, he said.

Hundreds of senior foreign leaders and national security officials flocked to Munich for the annual security conference. The meeting underscored deep concern and anxiety among Europeans over the future American commitment to the transatlantic alliance under Trump's direction, uncovered after a fervent speech by US Vice President JD Vance, who shocked many participants.

European officials and American lawmakers have stressed that any peace agreement must be negotiated in a way that simply does not stop fighting and allow Russia to re-arm and regroup to launch a new invasion in the future.

Ahead of the conference, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ruled out the possibility of Ukraine's membership in NATO as part of peace negotiations, and also ruled out the possibility of extending American troops or NATO collective defence to any future peacekeeping force. These comments also drew fire from a senior Republican lawmaker, and Hegseth later partially replied.

The possibility of excluding Ukraine and European allies from possible peace talks has created concern among diplomats on the continent, but some see complaints as indications of non-balancing power between Washington and Europe.

“If you must insist that you are relevant, likely you are not”, a European diplomat said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he does not believe Putin is ready for real peace talks after three years of war. “Trump told me Putin wants to stop fighting. I said, “Putin is a liar. I hope you'll pressure them, because I don't trust”, Zelensky said in Munich.

Administration officials have submitted a plan to Zelensky to hand over part of Ukraine's rare land mineral stock in exchange for continued US military support.