U.S., Russia restore embassy staffing amid Ukraine war negotiations

U.S.-Russia agreed to restore embassy staffing and create a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine peace and promote economic cooperation.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that officials at U.S.-Russia talks agreed to restore embassy staffing and create a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine peace and promote economic cooperation.

Rubio said that actions over the last several years have reduced both countries’ diplomatic missions’ abilities to operate.

“We’re going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits,” he said.

This comes as top diplomats from Russia and the U.S. met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine — talks that reflected a major and rapid change in American foreign policy under U.S. President Donald Trump.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country won’t accept any outcome from this week’s talks if Kyiv doesn’t take part. European allies have also expressed concerns they are being sidelined.

Beyond Ukraine, the meeting — attended by Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials — had been expected to focus on thawing relations between the two countries, whose ties have fallen to their lowest level in decades.

It was also meant to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the talks wrapped, Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, told Russia’s Channel One that no date has been set yet for that summit but that it was “unlikely” to take place next week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the talks would be primarily focused on “restoring the entire range of U.S.-Russian relations, as well as preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organizing a meeting of the two presidents.” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce has said the meeting was aimed at determining how serious the Russians are about wanting peace and whether detailed negotiations can be started.