US, Russia agree to appoint negotiating team to end conflict in Ukraine

The US State Department announced that on February 18, the US and Russia agreed to resolve issues hindering US-Russia relations and begin building a roadmap to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In a statement issued after talks in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to resolve issues in bilateral relations with the aim of taking necessary measures to normalize the activities of the two countries' diplomatic missions.

First, Washington and Moscow will cooperate to ensure that their diplomatic missions can operate.

Russian and US officials also agreed to lay the foundation for future cooperation in the fields of geopolitics, economics and investment after the conflict in Ukraine ends.

The two sides also agreed to set up a high-level action team to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, speaking on state television, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Russia and the US would discuss the Ukraine conflict "at the appropriate time."

Asked if the two sides would discuss Ukraine, Mr Ushakov said: "We discussed and outlined principled positions and agreed that separate negotiating teams would have contacts on this topic at the appropriate time."

Mr. Ushakov emphasized that the 4.5-hour negotiations between Russia and the US in Saudi Arabia ended successfully.

TASS news agency quoted Mr. Ushakov as saying that the two sides discussed the conditions for a meeting between President Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Mr. Ushakov said the summit is unlikely to take place next week and there is currently no specific date.

RIA news agency quoted the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev as also assessing that the negotiations between Russian and US officials in Riyadh to help end the conflict in Ukraine were positive.

Mr. Dmitriev said that the Russian and American delegations had begun dialogue and listened to each other, but it was still too early to talk about compromises.