The United States and Russia are set to begin talks this morning in Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine - the first face-to-face discussion between the two countries since Moscow's invasion in 2022.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will meet the US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Riyadh, but neither Ukraine or any European countries have been invited.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said he would not recognise any agreements reached from talks Kyiv is not involved in.
The US said the talks are a first step to see if Russia is "serious" about ending the war but Russia has insisted that the goal is to normalise its relations with America.
The meeting comes after European leaders met in Paris yesterday for an emergency summit about potential peace talks where Sir Keir Starmer said he would consider sending UK troops to Ukraine in the event of a lasting peace agreement.
However, other countries were reluctant to join the prime minister.
Ahead of the high-level talks this morning, a senior Russian official described president Trump as a "problem solver."
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said Mr Trump had “already addressed a number of big challenges very swiftly, very efficiently and very successfully."