‘Some Very Big Things Could Happen This Week’ – Rubio Looks to Rebuild Ukraine Relationship at Saudi Talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left his home city of Miami on Sunday night to get an early start on peace talks with Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the White House considers resuming military aid to Kyiv.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that Rubio would spend three days in Jeddah, accompanied by special envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz, discussing how to “advance the president’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine [sic] war.”

President Volodomyr Zelensky has said he will attend separate peace talks in the Saudi kingdom with the crown prince, while his chief adviser Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will meet with the US delegation.

US President Donald Trump is not slated to attend.

Topping the agenda will be the potential lifting of the US freeze on military aid to Ukraine and the resumption of the sharing of battlefield intelligence, two important bargaining chips that Trump decided to exploit ahead of the peace talks, further endangering Ukrainians and their soldiers.

When asked about the progress of the talks over the weekend while aboard Air Force One on a flight between Washington, D.C., and his residence in Florida, Trump said, “I think we’re going to have a good result in Saudi Arabia... We have a lot of good people going out there.

“And I think Ukraine’s going to do well, and I think Russia is going to do well. I think some very big things could happen this week. I hope so.”

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Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy on Russia and Ukraine, said Thursday he would support resuming assistance once Zelensky signs the long-discussed minerals deal, the planned focal point of a White House meeting between the two presidents last month during Zelensky’s state visit, but that the decision was ultimately up to Trump, Kellogg said.

At last month’s state visit on the possible Ukrainian mineral deal, during what was broadly described as an “ambush” at the White House, Trump and his Vice President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president for his allegedly ungratefulness for the aid the US had sent him thus far and bullied him that he was “in a very bad position” to negotiate.

In the state Oval Office meeting, the two top US executives even allowed a partisan journalist to criticize Zelensky’s military field attire, which he wears to symbolize solidarity with soldiers actively fighting for Ukraine’s right to exist.

During the exchange, Rubio was visibly squirming in his seat and looking at his feet, as the former Senator, from a vehemently anti-Soviet Cuban emigrant family, has for years warned of Russian imperialism.

Trump continued his hard stance on Ukraine and the minerals deal over the weekend, however, telling reporters that he did not think Ukraine had yet shown they “want peace.”

“Right now, they haven’t shown it to the extent that they should... but I think they will be, and I think it’s going to become evident over the next two or three days.”

Rubio will also meet in Jeddah with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the State Department said, on a state visit that will also touch upon Trump’s desire for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel.

The Secretary of State will then fly to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, whose relationship with its southern neighbor has been tumultuous since Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Ottawa retaliated with the same.