Russia, US agree to work toward ending Ukraine war, improving ties in landmark Riyadh talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, center left, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, center right, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov,(R), and Russian policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, second right. Also in meeting are US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. (SPA)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, center left, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, center right, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov,(R), and Russian policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, second right. Also in meeting are US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. (SPA)
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Updated 21 February 2025
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Russia, US agree to work toward ending Ukraine war, improving ties in landmark Riyadh talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan, center left.
  • Saudi Arabia hosted the talks between Russia and the US as part of the Kingdom’s efforts to enhance security and peace in the world

RIYADH: Russia and the US have agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday. 

Rubio said that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks, and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.
He stressed, however, that the talks — which were hosted by Saudi Arabia and also attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov — marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done down the road.
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.
Improving Russian-US relations
Ties between Russia and the US have fallen to their lowest level in decades during the war. Both embassies have been hit hard by expulsions of large numbers of diplomats over the course of several years, and the US, along with European nations, imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia. The allies have repeatedly expanded the measures to damage Moscow’s economy.
“Should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly, economically on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term,” Rubio said.
His comments were further evidence of the remarkable US reversal on Russia after years in which Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, led international efforts to isolate Moscow.
Tuesday’s meeting was meant to pave the way for a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the talks wrapped, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, 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.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lavrov said that in his view, “the conversation was very useful.” He mentioned the same three goals as Rubio and said that Washington and Moscow agreed to appoint representatives to carry out “regular consultations” on Ukraine.
“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” Lavrov. “And I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position, which we have once again outlined in detail, using specific examples, based on President Putin’s repeated speeches.”
The meeting marked the most extensive contact between the two countries since Moscow’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. Lavrov and then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India nearly two years ago, but tensions remained high.

Saudi Arabia hosted the talks on Ukraine between Russia and the US as part of its efforts to enhance global peace and security, the Kingdom’s foreign ministry announced earlier on Tuesday.

A statement released by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that under the directive of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: “Saudi Arabia hosts today, Tuesday, in the city of Riyadh, talks between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, as part of the Kingdom’s efforts to enhance security and peace in the world.”

The meeting was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the presence of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Saudi Minister of State and National Security advisor Musaed Al-Aiban.

The talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh were the most significant to date between the two former Cold War foes on ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The conversation could pave the way for a summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

But the talks in the Saudi capital underscored the rapid pace of US efforts to halt the conflict, less than a month after Trump took office and six days after he spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.




Russian foreign ministry officials said NATO must abandon plans for Ukraine to join the alliance. (X.com/RFM)

Lavrov said Russia told the United States it opposed any NATO member sending troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire, whether under a national flag or that of the European Union.
“This is unacceptable to us, of course,” Lavrov added.
The two sides also agreed to ensure the “prompt appointment” of ambassadors to each other’s countries, the foreign minister said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin relieved his former ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, last year but did not name a replacement.
His US counterpart Donald Trump is yet to appoint his ambassador for Moscow.
Lavrov also said the United States expressed an interest in lifting sanctions on Moscow.
“There was strong interest in removing artificial barriers to the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” he said.
The two sides agreed on a process for starting negotiations on ending the fighting in Ukraine, Lavrov added.
“The United States side will announce who will represent Washington, and as soon as we know the name and position of the appropriate representative, we will, as President Putin told President Trump, immediately designate our participant in this process.”

While the US and Russians were meeting in Saudi Arabia, Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara.
Zelensky flew into the Turkish capital from the United Arab Emirates late on Monday, saying on Telegram he would discuss prisoner exchanges and other issues with Erdogan.
The talks at Erdogan’s presidential palace, which began around 11:15 GMT, came several hours after the meeting in Saudi Arabia.




Zelensky arrived in Turkiye late on Monday. (AFP)

Zelensky last visited Turkiye in March 2024.
Top Erdogan aide Fahrettin Altun on Monday said the pair would discuss how to “further strengthen cooperation” between their two nations.
NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbours, with Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Alongside Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Turkiye has played a role in brokering several prisoner swap deals between Russia and Ukraine which have seen hundreds of prisoners returning home despite the ongoing conflict.

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Interior minister: 199 migrants deported from US arrive in Venezuela

Interior minister: 199 migrants deported from US arrive in Venezuela
Updated 10 sec ago
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Interior minister: 199 migrants deported from US arrive in Venezuela

Interior minister: 199 migrants deported from US arrive in Venezuela
  • Live footage showed young men in sweatsuits walking off the plane, which landed outside the capital Caracas
  • The flight comes after Venezuela announced it had reached an agreement with Washington to resume repatriation flights
MAIQUETIA, Venezuela: A plane carrying 199 migrants deported from the United States arrived early Monday in Venezuela, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
“Today, we are receiving 199 compatriots,” he said at the airport. “We are ready to receive Venezuelans wherever they are.”
Live footage showed young men in sweatsuits walking off the plane, which landed outside the capital Caracas. Some of them were smiling and clapping as officials looked on.
The flight comes after Venezuela on Saturday announced it had reached an agreement with Washington to resume repatriation flights from the United States.
The deportation pipeline was suspended last month when US President Donald Trump claimed Venezuela had not lived up to a deal to quickly receive deported migrants, and Caracas subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.

Russia launches third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv ahead of peace talks with US

Russia launches third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv ahead of peace talks with US
Updated 24 March 2025
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Russia launches third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv ahead of peace talks with US

Russia launches third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv ahead of peace talks with US
  • Latest attack came ahead of Russia-US talks in Riyadh to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea

KYIV: Russia launched its third consecutive overnight air attack on Kyiv, wounding one person and damaging several houses in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital, a Kyiv’s regional governor said on Monday.
A 37-year-old person received shrapnel wounds in his upper body and head, governor Mykola Kalashnyk said in a post on Telegram messaging app.
“The person has been hospitalized,” Kalashnyk said.
Late on Sunday, in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Russia’s attack injured a 54-year-old woman and damaged windows of multi-story and residential buildings, the region’s administration said on Telegram.
The attacks came after a Ukrainian delegation met with US officials for peace talks in Saudi Arabia, and ahead of Russia-US talks there on Monday to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea.
The United States is pushing for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, and hopes to reach a broad ceasefire in the war by April 20, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the planning.
But despite the peace push, both sides have been reporting continued strikes.
The full-scale of the overnight attack was not immediately clear.
There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts several hours starting late on Sunday, according to Ukraine air force maps.


France arrests young man for suspected attack on rabbi

France arrests young man for suspected attack on rabbi
Updated 24 March 2025
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France arrests young man for suspected attack on rabbi

France arrests young man for suspected attack on rabbi
  • France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union

ORLEANS, France: French police have arrested a young man on suspicion of attacking a rabbi in broad daylight, a prosecutor said Sunday, shocking the Jewish community and prompting a wave of condemnation.
The attack against the Rabbi of Orleans, Arie Engelberg, happened as he walked with his nine-year-old son from synagogue on Saturday afternoon in the city, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) south of Paris.
Engelberg told BFM television that his attacker asked if he was Jewish. “I said yes.”
“He started saying ‘all Jews are sons of...,” he said, adding that he wanted to film him with his phone as he hurled insults.
“I decided to act and I pushed his telephone away,” the rabbi said. His attacker then “started punching and I protected myself,” he added.
Engelberg said the suspect bit him until several people stepped in to help, he told the channel.
“I’m OK, thank God, my son, I’m getting better and better. We’ve had an enormous amount of support.”
Police were checking the identity of the person in custody since he did not have documents on him when he was detained, Orleans prosecutor Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren said.
Another source with knowledge of the case said the suspect arrested on Saturday night was known under at least three identities, one Moroccan and two Palestinian.

France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
Several EU nations have reported a spike in “anti-Muslim hatred” and “anti-Semitism” since the Gaza war started on October 7, 2023, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
On that date, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a cross-border attack in Israel, resulting in the death of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s subsequent military offensive on Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations deems the figures reliable.
Andre Druon, a Jewish community leader in Orleans, said there had not been any incident in Orleans since October 7, 2023 “apart from some graffiti” before the “very violent” attack on the rabbi.
He said the rabbi was profoundly shaken when he recounted his ordeal to the community on Sunday.
Yann Dhieux, a locksmith, told AFP he had intervened with his arms wide and helped stop the assault, but that it was shocking to see the rabbi attacked in front of his young son.
President Emmanuel Macron voiced solidarity with the rabbi’s family and all French people of Jewish faith.
“Anti-Semitism is a poison,” he wrote on X.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was “shocked” by the attack and called for “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism.”
France witnessed some 1,570 anti-Semitic acts last year, the interior ministry says. They made up 62 percent of all acts of hatred on the basis of religion.
 

 


South Korean court overturns impeachment of Prime Minister Han, reinstating him as acting president

South Korean court overturns impeachment of Prime Minister Han, reinstating him as acting president
Updated 24 March 2025
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South Korean court overturns impeachment of Prime Minister Han, reinstating him as acting president

South Korean court overturns impeachment of Prime Minister Han, reinstating him as acting president
  • Han was impeached by the National Assembly, soon after he became acting president when Yoon Suk Yeol was forced out
  • The Constitutional Court said Monday it has decided to overturn Han’s impeachment, but it has yet to rule on Yoon’s impeachment

SEOUL: South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Monday overturned the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating the nation’s No. 2 official as acting leader, while not yet ruling on the separate impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Han became acting president after Yoon was impeached by the National Assembly over his Dec. 3 imposition of martial law that triggered a massive political crisis. But Han was impeached by the assembly as well in late December following political strife with opposition lawmakers.
The unprecedented, successive impeachments that suspended the country’s top two officials intensified a domestic division and deepened worries about the country’s diplomatic and economic activities. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, had since serving as acting president.
The Constitutional Court said Monday it has decided to overturn Han’s impeachment, but it has yet to rule on Yoon’s impeachment.
If the court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, South Korea must hold a election for a new president. If it rules for him, Yoon will be restored to office and regain his presidential powers.
Yoon was impeached about two weeks earlier than Han. Observers earlier predicted the Constitutional Court would rule on Yoon’s case in mid-March but it hasn’t done so.
Yoon has been separately arrested and charged with rebellion in connection with his martial law decree. If convicted of that charge, he would face the death penalty or a life sentence. On March 8, Yoon was released from prison, after a Seoul district court allowed him to stand his criminal trial without being detained.
Massive rival rallies backing Yoon or denouncing Yoon have divided the streets of Seoul and other major cities in South Korea. Earlier surveys showed that a majority of South Koreans were critical of Yoon’s martial law enactment, but those supporting or sympathizing with Yoon have later gained strength.
At the center of squabbling over Yoon is why he sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the assembly after declaring martial law. Yoon says he aims to maintain order, but senior military and police officers sent there have said that Yoon ordered them to drag out lawmakers to prevent a floor vote to overturn his decree. Enough lawmakers eventually managed to enter an assembly hall and voted it down unanimously.


US delegation aims for Black Sea ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia talks

US delegation aims for Black Sea ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia talks
Updated 24 March 2025
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US delegation aims for Black Sea ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia talks

US delegation aims for Black Sea ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia talks
  • Talks follow meeting between US, Ukrainian officials on Sunday
  • Teams will also discuss “the line of control” between the two countries

RIYADH/KYI: A US delegation will seek progress toward a Black Sea ceasefire and a broader cessation of violence in the war in Ukraine when it meets for talks with Russian officials on Monday, after discussions with diplomats from Ukraine on Sunday.
The so-called technical talks come as US President Donald Trump intensifies his drive for a halt to Russia’s three-year-old assault against Ukraine. Last week, he spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A source briefed on the planning for the talks said the US side was being led by Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official.
They met the Ukrainians on Sunday night and plan to sit down with the Russians on Monday.
The White House says the aim of the talks is to reach a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, allowing the free flow of shipping.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the US, Russian and Ukrainian delegations were assembled in the same facility in Riyadh.
Beyond a Black Sea ceasefire, he said, the teams will discuss “the line of control” between the two countries, which he described as “verification measures, peacekeeping, freezing the lines where they are.” He said “confidence-building measures” are being discussed, including the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

ussia will be represented by Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who is now chair of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the director of the Federal Security Service.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, said on Facebook that the US-Ukraine talks included proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure.
After Russian forces made gains in 2024, Trump reversed US policy on the war, launching bilateral talks with Moscow and suspending military assistance to Ukraine, demanding that it take steps to end the conflict.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who met Putin in Moscow in early March, played down concerns among Washington’s NATO allies that Moscow could be emboldened by a deal and invade other neighbors.
“I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe. This is a much different situation than it was in World War Two, Witkoff told Fox News.
“I feel that he wants peace,” Witkoff said of Putin.

Somewhat under control
Trump has long promised to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. But his outreach to Putin has unnerved European allies, who fear it heralds a fundamental shift after 80 years in which defending Europe from Russian expansionism was the core mission of US foreign policy.
The war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and reduced entire towns to rubble.
Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said earlier this month he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Heorhii Tykhyi, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday the Ukrainian and American sides were due “to clarify the modalities, the nuances of possible different ceasefire regimes, how to monitor them, how to control them, in general, what is included in their scope.”
Last Tuesday, Putin agreed to Trump’s proposal for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days and ordered the Russian military to cease them.
The agreement fell short, however, of a wider agreement that the US had sought, and which Kyiv backed, for a blanket 30-day truce in the war.
Trump said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict were “somewhat under control.”
The US hopes to reach a broad ceasefire within weeks, targeting a truce agreement by April 20, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the planning.
Despite all the diplomatic activity, Russia and Ukraine have both reported continued strikes, while Russian forces have also continued to advance slowly in eastern Ukraine, a region Moscow claims to have annexed.