…….According to US officials, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss ways to end the conflict in Ukraine… … ….. ……………. … ……… ……………….. ………. The officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, and national security adviser Mike Waltz will join America’s top diplomat.

According to US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg, Europe was not invited to the talks, but Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv would participate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claims that Kyiv was not invited to the negotiations. Ukraine’s European allies will meet in Paris next week for an emergency summit on the war amid European concerns that the US is advancing peace talks with Russia without consulting the continent.

Speaking on Saturday, Kellogg claimed that too many parties had been involved in earlier negotiations, which is why they had failed.

The American diplomat went on to say, “I am telling you something that is really quite honest, even though it may grate a little bit, like chalk on the blackboard.”

According to state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, Rubio also reaffirmed US President Donald Trump’s “commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine” in a conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday.

It came after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone on Wednesday, when the White House startled its European allies by resuming direct communication with Moscow following a more than three-year halt.