US, Russia to name teams to negotiate 'ending the conflict in Ukraine': Reports

Moscow: Russia and the United States will address the Ukraine conflict at an appropriate time, according to a Kremlin negotiator following high-level talks between the two countries in Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, the talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia have wrapped up, a senior Kremlin official told Russian state TV on Tuesday.

According to AFP, US and Russia have agreed to form separate negotiating teams to focus on discussions aimed at ending the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

"We discussed and outlined our principled positions and agreed that separate teams of negotiators will be in touch on this topic in due course," said Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy aide to President Vladimir Putin, when asked about the Ukraine issue during the talks.

President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Riyadh alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, told Russia's Channel one that no date has been set yet for a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

The top diplomats from Russia and the US met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine — talks that represented a rapid and major change in American foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which comes as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country won't accept any outcome from this week's talks if Kyiv doesn't take part. European allies have also expressed concerns they are being sidelined.