Russia denies meeting with US officials in Riyadh on February 25
Photo: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov (regnum ru)
Russia denies plans to meet with US representatives in Saudi Arabia next week. The meeting was reportedly set for Tuesday, February 25.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov made the statement, according to TASS.
“There is no meeting between Russia and the US planned for February 25 in Riyadh,” Ryabkov told Russian media.
Earlier, Euronews reported that US President Donald Trump had announced a new round of negotiations between US and Russian representatives in a statement published by the public network C-Span.
Trump allegedly stated that the talks would take place in Riyadh on February 25.
Before that, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov had said that a meeting between US and Russian representatives was expected within the next two weeks. According to him, it would be a meeting at the level of department heads, focused on addressing “irritants” in bilateral relations.
Russian officials now claim that the meeting at the department-head level is set to take place in a third country.
US-Russia negotiations
On February 18, US and Russian delegations held a meeting in Saudi Arabia. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated he was “confident in Russia’s willingness to start a serious process to determine how the war can be ended.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine does not recognize the results of the talks in Riyadh. He also postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia due to the meeting between Russian and US delegations.
