Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the situation in Ukraine, as well as the removal of “unilateral barriers” set by the previous US administration, Moscow said on Saturday.
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US and Russian officials are to start talks in the coming days on ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine after US President Donald Trump shocked European allies by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin and declaring an immediate start to the talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that his country was not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia and that Kyiv would not engage with Russia before consulting strategic partners.
Lavrov and Rubio, in a call initiated by the US, agreed to maintain contacts to resolve problems in bilateral relations, “in the interests of removing the unilateral barriers to mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation inherited from the previous administration,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear what barriers were discussed.
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The US under then president Joe Biden and Kyiv’s allies around the world imposed waves of sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine three years ago, aimed at weakening the Russian economy and limiting the Kremlin’s war efforts.