The top US envoy will meet with Russian officials to discuss peace in Ukraine.

In the upcoming days US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Ukraine with Russian officials.

According to US authorities, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss ways to stop the conflict in Ukraine.

The officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News that Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East and national security adviser Mike Waltz will join America's top diplomat.

According to US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg, Europe was not invited to the discussions but Washington, Moscow and Kyiv will participate.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv was not invited to the Saudi Arabian negotiations.

Ukraine's European allies will meet in Paris next week for an emergency meeting on the crisis amid European concerns that the United States is advancing peace negotiations with Russia without consulting the continent.

Speaking on Saturday, Kellogg claimed that too many parties had been involved in earlier conversations, which is why they had failed.

"It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit but I am telling you something that is really quite honest," the diplomat from the United States said.

According to state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, Rubio also underlined US President Donald Trump's "commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine" in a conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday.

It came after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone on Wednesday when the White House startled its European friends by resuming direct communication with Moscow following a more than three-year halt.

Following the call, Trump declared that talks will start "immediately" to end the "ridiculous war" in Ukraine.

Tensions at the international Munich Security Conference, where US Vice President JD Vance harshly attacked European democracies on Friday, precede the next negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

The Trump administration's assertion that Europe needs to "step up in a big way to provide for its own defence" was reiterated by Vance.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or regaining all of its territory on Wednesday, which heightened European concerns that the US would be caving in to Russia before a peace agreement is reached.

After seizing Crimea and a portion of the eastern Donbas region in 2014, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Amid growing concerns that Washington might no longer support the region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the establishment of a "army of Europe" during his speech at the Munich summit.

We can't rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it," Zelensky stated.