LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Today, in Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Russian diplomats met to discuss ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine. After the meeting, which was billed as peace talks, the U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed reporters.
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MARCO RUBIO: We agreed on what the goal is. The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that's fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved.
FADEL: Joining us to talk about what was achieved and what wasn't is NPR's Russia correspondent Charles Maynes. Good morning, Charles.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Hi there.
FADEL: OK, so this meeting just wrapped up. What can you tell us?
MAYNES: Well, the meeting was a direct result of that phone call last week between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which these two leaders agreed to pursue this negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as we heard, headed the U.S. delegation along with White House Envoy Steve Witkoff, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz as well, who said that they showed up determined to get things done.
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MIKE WALTZ: President Trump is determined to move very quickly. We just had a head of state phone call, the first in years. And here we are less than a week later at the highest level of the U.S. and Russian government, and we expect to continue to drive that pace.
MAYNES: Now, these talks paced out at about 4 1/2 hours. Both sides described them as positive, as serious. They also made clear this was just an initial step towards more negotiations to end the war. They didn't expect to solve it in one day.
FADEL: But, Charles, notably, Ukrainian and European officials were absent today. Did either side address that?
MAYNES: Yeah, no, that's right. You know, Ukraine was not even invited, although both Trump and the Kremlin say Ukraine will be involved in some way at some point. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Kyiv won't recognize any deals that are done without Ukraine. And Europe, of course, has been upset about being sidelined on an issue they see as key to European security. And yet the American delegation, Waltz in particular, pushed back against this idea that somehow Kyiv or Europe was being ignored. He said, no, this was just shuttle diplomacy. You talk to different sides and pass on what they have to say.
FADEL: Now, given the atmosphere you describe, are we witnessing something more here? Is this a reset between the U.S. and Russia?
MAYNES: Well, it certainly feels like it's headed that direction. You know, both sides said they would move forward with plans for a meeting between Trump and Putin. They've now agreed to meet face to face. So by all accounts, Russia's isolation over its actions in Ukraine appear over. In fact, after the talks, Lavrov spoke about how it wasn't normal for big countries like the U.S. and Russia to not engage as they hadn't during the Biden years. But things were different now.
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SERGEY LAVROV: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: So here he says that the talks were useful, and for the first time in a long time, Russia felt not just heard but listened to.
FADEL: OK, following these talks, do we have any sense of what the outlines of a deal might look like?
MAYNES: Well, President Trump has said Ukraine must give up both its NATO ambitions and territory to Moscow. These are two key Russian demands that have really fed fears that Ukraine won't have a say in its own future. But Secretary of State Rubio, as we heard in that intro, says he wants a deal acceptable to all parties. How that works? Where borders are drawn? I don't think anybody knows, including Rubio. but there's clearly a concern in Ukraine that while Kyiv wants a just peace, Trump just wants peace. And because of that, and because Moscow has the upper hand both on the battlefield and around the negotiating table, they're nervous.
FADEL: NPR's Russia correspondent Charles Maynes. Thank you for your reporting.
MAYNES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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