Zelensky, Rubio arrive in Jeddah before crucial talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia's western port city of Jeddah late on Monday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, hours before high-stakes talks with the United States, with US officials saying Washington is planning to use the encounter in part to determine whether Kyiv is willing to make material concessions to end the three-year conflict with Russia.

The closed-door meeting would be the first high-level gathering of US and Ukrainian officials since a Feb 28 Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Zelensky turned disastrous and ended with the Ukrainian leader being asked to leave the White House.

Zelensky's plane landed with a team including head of the president's office Andriy Yermak, deputy head of the president's office Pavlo Palisa, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. But Zelensky said he will not attend Tuesday's talks with US officials.

Zelensky was expected to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Saudi Arabia has played various mediating roles after the conflict broke out in 2022, including brokering prisoner exchanges and hosting talks between Russia and the United States last month.

Also on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Jeddah, Saudi's Al-Arabiya TV said in a separate report. He led a delegation that also includes Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser.

According to a previous statement by the US State Department, Rubio will stay in Jeddah from Monday to Wednesday and meet with a Ukrainian delegation "to advance the President (Trump)'s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war". During his stay, Rubio would also meet with the Saudi crown prince.

"You can't say 'I want peace', and 'I refuse to compromise on anything'," one anonymous US official said earlier of the upcoming talks.

"We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace," said other official. "If they are only interested in 2014 or 2022 borders, that tells you something."

Minerals deal

Hanging over Jeddah is the fate of a minerals deal between the US and Ukraine, which Kyiv wants to include a US security guarantee in exchange for access to certain mineral resources in Ukraine.

On Feb 28, Trump at one point warned Zelensky: "You're gambling with World War III, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country."

Since then, both sides have expressed a renewed willingness to sign the deal, but no signing has yet occurred. Trump said on Sunday he thought Ukraine would sign it, with a caveat that he wanted Kyiv to show that it wanted peace.

"They will sign the minerals deal but I want them to want peace ... They haven't shown it to the extent they should," he said.

"I think you're gonna have eventually — and maybe not in the distant future — you're gonna have some pretty good results coming out of Saudi Arabia this week," Trump said.

Saudi Arabia has been positioning itself as an ideal location for possible peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow and even the first face-to-face talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump, with Riyadh hosting the Russia-US talks on Feb 18.

In a statement, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said the kingdom would continue to pursue "a lasting peace to end the Ukrainian crisis". "The kingdom has continued these efforts over the past three years by hosting many meetings on this matter," the ministry said.

'Political will'

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Petkov said on Monday that there is a political will by the leaders of Russia and the US to repair their countries' ties.

"We are at the initial stage of the path to restoring our bilateral relations," he told reporters. "The road ahead is quite long and difficult, but at least the two presidents have expressed political will in this direction."

When asked about Tuesday's talks, Peskov said: "It doesn't matter what we're expecting. It matters what the US is expecting."

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.