This Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their respective teams conferred for hours in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Beyond the established resumption of diplomatic work at each country's respective embassies, a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as views on the war in Ukraine were discussed.

"We didn't just listen, we really heard each other," said Foreign Minister Lavrov afterwards.

The meeting was the first between Washington and Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine some three years ago. The talks and the way they are structured have caused consternation, especially as representatives from neither Ukraine nor the EU were present. Before the US-Russian sit-down, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy clearly stated that Kyiv would not accept any agreements made for it in absentia.

Speaking with reporters from the news agency Agence France Press (AFP) in Ankara, Turkey, Zelenskyy said: "Ukraine, Europe in a broad sense — and this includes the European Union, Turkey and the UK — should be involved in conversations and the development of the necessary security guarantees with America regarding the fate of our part of the world."

Eastern European history shows that what Russia and the US are........

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