MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and the United States have had their first meeting since the start of the Ukraine war, aimed at restoring relations and preparing the ground for ending the conflict.
What is known so far about what was discussed?
UKRAINE WAR
U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to quickly end the war. President Vladimir Putin says he is willing to negotiate an end to the war but based on the reality of Russia’s control over swathes of Ukraine. Trump says Putin wants a deal.
The exact details of a possible deal are unclear. Trump said he could meet Putin this month.
NATO
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO allies last week it was unrealistic for Ukraine to join the NATO alliance as part of a negotiated settlement with Russia. Hegseth also said Ukraine’s hopes of restoring its internationally recognised borders were an “illusionary goal”.
Russia has demanded NATO scrap its 2008 promise to one day give Ukraine membership of U.S.-led NATO and dismissed the idea that NATO member forces could be keepers of the peace in Ukraine under some sort of ceasefire deal.
The Kremlin said, however, that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach that question.
Still, the shape of a Western security guarantee for Ukraine will be extremely challenging to resolve.
TERRITORY
Russian forces are gradually advancing and control just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the east and south. Russia now holds about 113,000 square kilometres (43,630 square miles) of Ukraine, an area equivalent to the U.S. state of Ohio.
One of the critical issues is how much territory Russia is demanding to keep.
Putin in June last year set out his opening stance on territory: Ukraine must withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Reuters reported in November that Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
US-RUSSIAN SUMMIT?
Both Trump and Putin have said they are willing to meet soon. It would be the first face-to-face encounter between a Russian and a U.S. leader since 2021.
“I would be glad to meet Donald,” Putin said on Feb. 19.
“But we are in such a position that it is not enough to simply meet, just to have a cup of tea or coffee, sit down and talk about the future. We need to ensure that our teams prepare issues that are extremely important for both the United States and Russia, including – not only, but also on the Ukrainian track, in order to reach solutions acceptable to both sides.”
ENERGY
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to lower oil prices. Putin said economic questions and “our joint work on global energy markets” were issues to be explored.
It is unclear what they have in mind so far. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, hosted the February 18 talks between Russia and the United States.
Russia needs Western technology to exploit its vast reserves of oil and gas, and Gazprom has lost almost all of its European gas market.
SANCTIONS AND INVESTMENT
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund expects a number of U.S. companies to return to Russia as early as the second quarter of 2025, its chief, Kirill Dmitriev, said after the talks in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
Many Western companies, including McDonald’s and Caterpillar, have left Russia and some took hefty write-downs while selling assets at steep discounts.
For them to return, however, would require the lifting of the toughest Western sanctions ever imposed on a major economy. If the U.S. lifted the sanctions, Western investment could again flow into Russia and Russian markets would rally.
NUCLEAR TALKS
Trump said he would like to speak to Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about limits on nuclear weapons arsenals. Russia and the U.S. are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the U.S. and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out in less than a year – on February 5, 2026.
Putin mentioned the New START treaty in remarks on Feb. 19.
PRISONER EXCHANGE
The Kremlin said the idea of a possible new prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S. was on the agenda after Moscow and Washington agreed to start work on restoring relations at all levels.
At least 10 Americans remain behind bars in Russia, including two who have been designated as “wrongfully detained” by Washington. Moscow freed American citizen Kalob Byers days before the U.S.-Russian meeting in Riyadh.
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
At their meeting in Saudi Arabia, Russian and U.S. officials restored working relations and resolved to remove obstacles – such as frozen properties and limits on financial transactions.
Among the issues is diplomatic property. Washington has put six Russian properties under restriction, including the Killenworth estate on Long Island, the Pioneer Point “dacha” in Maryland, the Russian consulates in San Francisco and Seattle and the trade missions in Washington and New York.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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