On Tuesday February 18th President of the U.S. Donald Trump and President of Russia Vladimir Putin agreed to start working toward the end of the war in Ukraine. During an interview with the Associated Press the Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the two agreed to restore staffing at their embassies, create a high-level team to protect the peace talks, and explore a closer relationship and economic cooperation (Lee, Litvinova).

Michael Waltz, Trump’s National Security Adviser, and Steven Witkoff, Mideast envoy, had joined Rubio at the table although no officials for Ukraine were present at the meeting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that since Kyiv didn’t participate Ukraine would not accept any outcomes of the meeting.

Multiple European allies have expressed concern that they will be sidelined during the peace talks. An anonymous official said that the United States sees these talks as an early stage towards ending the war (AP News).

Trump has shown little patience for Ukraines protests to being excluded from the peace talks and repeatedly said that Ukraines leaders shouldn’t have let the war begin, suggesting that they should have made an agreement with Russia before the 2022 invasion began.

“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you been there for three years. You should have ended it three years” ago, Trump said during a news conference in Florida. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal”(AP News).

Rubio said that ending the war in Ukraine could present “incredible opportunities” to partner with Russia on issues of common interest.