U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Saturday and “discussed next steps” in talks to end the war in Ukraine, the State Department said.
The two ministers “discussed next steps following recent meetings in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue working to restore communication between the United States and Russia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
She did not provide details on the date of the next round of U.S.-Russia talks under the auspices of Saudi Arabia.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has emphasized his desire to end the three-year conflict.
Despite recent tensions between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, Kiev has agreed in principle to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire under U.S. auspices if Moscow stops its attacks in eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not agree to any truce, but instead set conditions that exceed those in the US-Ukraine deal.
The Trump team’s cease-fire proposal comes as Russia gains momentum in many areas of the Ukraine front.
On Saturday, around thirty leaders of countries and organizations that support Ukraine, during a virtual summit organized by London, decided to exert “collective pressure” on Russia, which they suspect wants to continue the war, in order to force it to accept a truce.
“The ball is in Russia’s court,” which “sooner or later will have to engage in serious talks,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to whom Vladimir Putin is “the one trying to delay” things.
Starmer said that Putin will eventually have to “come to the table”.
Military leaders from around 30 countries met in Paris on March 11 to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, and will meet again on Thursday in Britain.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for concerted action on Saturday to ensure that Russia accepts the proposed ceasefire.
“This is a moment of truth because if Russia does not sincerely commit to peace, President Trump will tighten sanctions and retaliation, and that will completely change the dynamic,” Macron told a French regional newspaper in an interview published on Saturday night.
“Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in cooperation with the United States, to achieve a ceasefire,” he told AFP.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia must show it is “ready to support a ceasefire that leads to a just and lasting peace.”
But Zelensky warned that Russia wants to achieve a “stronger position” militarily before any ceasefire, more than three years since it invaded Ukraine.
They want to improve their situation on the battlefield, Zelensky told reporters in Kiev.
Starmer and Macron have said they are willing to send British and French forces to the ground in Ukraine, but it is not clear whether other countries want to do the same.
Russia has rejected the idea that such soldiers are acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine.
But Macron said on Saturday: “If Ukraine asks for allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept it or not.”
Starmer said he welcomed any offer of support to the coalition, raising the prospect that some countries could contribute logistics or surveillance.
Fighting continues, and Moscow this week regained swathes of land in the border region of Kursk.
