The first round of talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia “went well”, a key Vladimir Putin aide said on Tuesday.

Yuri Ushakov said the two countries would discuss the war in Ukraine in “due course” and agreed that separate teams of negotiators “will be in touch”.

The US state department said in a statement that Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, had agreed to appoint high-level teams to begin working on a path to end the war.

Officials had also been hoping to strike a date for a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin but this did not happen.

“We are ready for this, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders,” Mr Ushakov added.

The talks, which lasted nearly four-and-a-half hours, also included Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, and Mike Waltz, the White House’s national security adviser.

It was the first such meeting between US and Russian officials since Putin launched his invasion in February 2022.