A senior team from US President Donald Trump's administration will start talks in Saudi Arabia with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on ending the Ukraine war, US officials said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Mr Trump's Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff will head to Saudi for the talks, the officials said.
The move comes just days after Mr Trump announced that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since returning to office, and that they had agreed to start talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The officials gave no further details of when the meetings would happen or when the officials would travel.
But Mr Rubio had already been due to visit Saudi Arabia as part his first tour of the Middle East, which began earlier when he arrived in Israel.
Mr Rubio earlier had a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in which he "reaffirmed President Trump's commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine," the State Department said.
Former property developer Mr Witkoff was heavily involved in a prisoner exchange deal earlier this week that paved the way for the call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin.
Mr Witkoff even travelled to Moscow to bring home US detainee Marc Fogel.
In a social media post announcing the call with Mr Putin earlier this week, Mr Trump had said he had tasked Mr Rubio, Mr Waltz, Mr Witkoff and CIA chief John Ratcliffe to immediately get to work on a deal with Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Ukraine and its European allies were however blindsided by Mr Trump's sudden move to start negotiations with Russia.
Both fear being frozen out of negotiations on Ukraine's future after the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.
Zelensky rejects Trump-led deal with US on minerals
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he blocked a Donald Trump-led deal that would give the US access to vast amounts of Ukrainian natural resources as it lacked "security guarantees" for Ukraine and "does not protect us".
"I did not allow ministers to sign the agreement because it is not ready. In my opinion, it does not protect us. It is not ready to protect us, our interests," Mr Zelensky said during a briefing with reporters in Munich.
He added the deal should be "connected with security guarantees" and that "I don't see this connection in the document yet. It should be clear, it's important".
The minerals in question could include rare earth varieties, as well as titanium, uranium and lithium among others.
Mr Zelensky earlier said that Ukraine would never accept any peace deals reached behind its back or without Kyiv's involvement - an implicit message to Mr Trump as he strives to end the war with Russia.
In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Mr Zelensky also called on Europe to create its own armed forces, urging the continent's leaders to decide their own future and saying Ukraine's armed forces alone were not enough for their security.
"Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement. And the same rule should apply to all of Europe," he said.
Ukraine has repeatedly said it wants to come together with the United States and Europe to devise a joint strategy before any Trump-Putin meeting.
The Trump administration so far has left the impression among some European allies that it was making concessions to Mr Putin at Ukraine's expense before any negotiations begin, though remarks by some top US officials have raised confusion.
Kellogg says talks could focus on territorial concessions from Russia
The US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin's oil revenue.
"Russia is really a petrostate," Mr Kellogg said at the Munich Security Conference, adding that Western powers needed to do more to effectively enforce sanctions on Russia.
Mr Zelensky predicted that the Kremlin would try to persuade Mr Trump to attend Russia's 9 May commemorations in Moscow, when it marks the Soviet victory in World War II with an annual military parade through Red Square.
Mr Zelensky told the conference that he believed it would be "dangerous" if Mr Trump met Mr Putin before he and the US President meet.
To Europe's leaders, he issued warnings, asking rhetorically whether their armies would be ready if Moscow launched an open or "false-flag" attack.
The latter is designed to look like it was perpetrated by someone other the group responsible for it.
"If this (Ukraine-Russia) war ends the wrong way, he (Putin) will have a surplus of battle-tested soldiers who know nothing but killing and looting," he said, citing intelligence reports saying Russia will dispatch its troops to Belarus this summer.
"And now, as we fight this war and lay the groundwork for peace and security, we must build the Armed Forces of Europe."
Zelensky sought 'security guarantees' from Vance
Yesterday, the Ukrainian leader said he sought "security guarantees" as he met with the US vice president to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to broker a truce deal with Moscow.
Mr Zelensky's sitdown with JD Vance in Munich comes as Ukraine scrambles to ensure it is not sidelined in the US push to wrap up the three-year war.
Speaking with reporters in Munich, Mr Zelensky stressed the need to "speak more" with the White House before any endgame to the war is formulated.
"We want peace very much but we need real security guarantees," he said after his first meeting with Mr Vance.
In a preview of his interview with US media outlet NBC, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine "will have a low, low chance to survive without support of the United States".
Mr Vance meanwhile described "good conversations" with Mr Zelensky, and acknowledged the administration's goal of bringing the war to a close.
"We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that's going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road," Mr Vance said as the meeting wrapped up.
Mr Zelensky later wrote on X that an envoy from the US would visit Ukraine.
"We are ready to move as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace," he wrote.
Read more: Vance tells Zelensky US wants 'lasting' peace
