Trump says Riyadh talks are 'big step forward', adviser says era of war in Ukraine is over

"Our team started talks this week in Saudi Arabia," he said, thanking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "for hosting these historic talks" and noting that the talks "went very, very well."

"This is a big step forward. We need to end that war," he said at an investment forum hosted by Saudi Arabia in Miami.

Earlier, Russian and US delegations held talks in Riyadh on February 18. The talks lasted 4.5 hours. The Russian side was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. The US side was attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy for the Middle East Stephen Witkoff.

According to Mr. Ushakov, the delegations had a serious conversation on all the issues that were planned for discussion, including narrowing the gap between the two countries' positions and contacts related to Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov said that the conversation was very useful and the two sides agreed to appoint ambassadors as soon as possible.

The US State Department also said that Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Rubio agreed during the meeting to establish negotiating groups on Ukraine and on future cooperation on issues of common geopolitical interest.

In another development, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz recently said that the era of war in Ukraine is over. He told Fox News: "Not everyone realizes that the era of an endless war with death and destruction on both sides, costing hundreds of billions of dollars and claiming hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. That era is over. President Trump has been very clear that he intends to end this war, that all sides need to be involved in that."

Mr. Waltz expressed surprise at Kiev's "strange and escalating reaction" to the US proposal to use Ukraine's mineral resources in exchange for US assistance. He said the US sees this as "a great opportunity for the US to invest in Ukraine's infrastructure, to help them develop their mineral, natural resources, oil and gas."

In early February, US President Donald Trump said that Washington was interested in gaining access to Ukraine's rare earth metals. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his readiness to implement the agreement and suggested that the results of negotiations on this issue could be included in the Munich Conference from February 14-16.

However, on February 14 in Munich, Kiev rejected the US administration’s plan to support Ukraine in exchange for access to half of Ukraine’s rare earth metals for Washington. Mr. Zelensky also noted that the proposed deal did not include any security guarantees. Kiev said it was working on a counter-proposal.

On February 16, in an interview with Fox News, Mr. Waltz strongly recommended that Mr. Zelensky change his position and sign a deal with the US on minerals, because the Americans "deserve some compensation for the billions of dollars they have invested in this war."