Politics | Feb 22nd 2025 Edition

America held its first meeting with Russia about bringing the war in Ukraine to an end. The talks between Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, without any representatives from Ukraine or the European Union. The State Department said both sides had laid “the groundwork for future co-operation”. Donald Trump’s rapprochement with Russia has stunned Europe, but a hastily convened emergency summit in Paris revealed divisions on the next steps to take. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, offered to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force.