US, Russia to name teams for negotiating path to end Ukraine war

However, Kyiv and the European Union were not present in the meeting.

No specific details emerged from the Riyadh gathering on whether a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is on the cards.

Tuesday's meeting is the first high-level official talks between Washington and Moscow since Ukraine's 2022 invasion.

Some European leaders, alarmed by Trump's overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington DC will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent's security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal between superpowers, NDTV reported. 

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to "appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible," the US State Department said.

Last week, Trump called Vladimir Putin and both leaders agreed to immediately start talks to end the Ukraine war.

Trump described the call as "lengthy and highly productive" in a post on Truth Social, saying that the two leaders had even agreed to visit each other's nations to address the deep tensions since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

In an official statement, the Kremlin too confirmed the call and said it lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours.

They also confirmed that both Putin and Trump had agreed that the "time has come to work together," with a long-term solution for the Ukraine war in reach.