Russian foreign minister: US and Russia agree to appoint ambassadors

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia and the United States agreed to appoint ambassadors to the countries.

As reported, Lavrov and Putin's foreign police advisor Yuri Ushakov met with the US delegation, represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, in Saudi Arabia on 18 February.

Lavrov said at a briefing after today’s US-Russian talks in Riyadh that the first agreement, which he called "the most urgent and not the most difficult", was to "ensure the appointment of ambassadors of Russia to the United States and the United States to Russia as soon as possible".

He also said that Russia and the United States agreed to "remove the long-time obstacles" that had been set up by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

He said that the Biden administration had been building obstacles to Russia's "diplomatic missions" for the past four years, which seriously "complicated the work".

Among these "complications", he mentioned the "endless deportations of diplomats", to which Russia was "forced to respond".

After the talks between Russia and the United States, the US State Department reported that the US and Russian delegations had agreed to "eliminate obstacles" to bilateral relations and continue to work on preparing talks on Russia's war against Ukraine.

In particular, they agreed to appoint high-level groups for negotiations on Ukraine.

Fox News host and White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said that the US and Russia are discussing a three-stage peace plan for Ukraine, which includes a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine and eventually a final agreement.