The delegations of the United States and Russia agreed "to engage on issues in bilateral relations in order to take the steps necessary to normalize the work of diplomatic missions," US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said after today's talks in Riyadh.

The two sides also agreed to appoint high-level teams for negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine, "who will work to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a manner that is durable, sustainable and acceptable to all parties."

The US and Russia will also begin to consider "future cooperation on issues of mutual geopolitical interest and the historic economic and investment opportunities that will arise from a successful conclusion to the conflict in Ukraine," she added.

The statement claims that US President Donald Trump wants to stop the killings in Ukraine.

"The United States wants peace and is using its power in the world to bring countries together. President Trump is the only world leader who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to this," the State Department said.

However, it is emphasized that "one phone call and one meeting are not enough to establish lasting peace" and that this is just the beginning of the process.

As reported, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed on 5 key things:

-To continue to maintain contacts.

-To appoint teams for peace negotiations in Ukraine.

-Creating mechanisms to eliminate "irritating factors" in US-Russian relations

-To cooperate on issues of geopolitical interest.

-They are working on economic opportunities after the resolution of the war in Ukraine and preparing the ground for future investments.

During the negotiations, the Kremlin also made a statement, saying that "Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky."

Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the talks did not go badly.

According to him, Russia and the United States have agreed to take into account mutual interests. At the same time, it is difficult to say that Russia and the United States are getting closer, but as he states, there has been talk about it.

"There was a very serious discussion about all the issues we wanted to raise," he told Channel 1, adding that both Moscow and Washington are interested in developing bilateral relations.

 

The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump will probably not take place next week, Ushakov said, adding that it is difficult to give a specific date for the meeting between the two presidents.

 

"We need close work between the delegations of the two countries. We are ready for that, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders," he said.

According to him, the decision on who will be included in the team of negotiators from the Russian Federation for the Ukrainian conflict will be made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.