After meeting in Istanbul, US and Russia agree on another

Representatives from the United States and Russia met in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Thursday to discuss diplomatic issues, according to the U.S. State Department and Russian state media.

Following the meeting, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter and Russian Ambassador Alexander Darchiyev agreed to hold another meeting "in the near future." The date and location have not yet been determined.

The State Department said the Istanbul meeting followed an agreement between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to begin negotiations on the activities of the two countries' diplomatic missions.

Specifically, the U.S. is "concerned" about access to banking and contractual services, as well as a stable and sustainable level of staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

"Through constructive discussions, both sides identified concrete initial steps to stabilize bilateral mission operations in these areas," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Russian media reported that the meeting lasted six and a half hours. There were no comments to the media.

On February 18, the first official talks between the U.S. and Russia took place in Saudi Arabia. The American delegation then said that it considered the meeting with Russian representatives as an initial contact that would help to gauge whether Moscow was ready for negotiations on ending the war against Ukraine.

The United States and the Russian Federation agreed to create negotiating groups regarding the end of the war.

Kyiv said it would not recognize any agreements about it reached without its participation. 

However, Rubio assures that these are not "negotiations" as such, because no one was sitting over a map and drawing lines.