**US and Russia Try to Fix Relationship**
On February 15, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the phone. This conversation comes just days after US President Donald Trump talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the two diplomats agreed to keep in touch to deal with issues between Russia and the US. They want to remove barriers that have hurt trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
**Concerns About Ukraine**
Rubio’s call with Lavrov happened just days after Trump promised Putin that they would start talks to end the war in Ukraine “immediately”. This didn’t make Ukrainian President Zelensky happy. He complained that Trump should have called him first, not Putin.
Zelensky also said that it wasn’t a good situation. But the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said that both sides agreed to work together on important global issues, including the situation in Ukraine.
**More Meetings Planned**
The two diplomats promised to keep talking and to prepare for a meeting between Trump and Putin. There are plans for this meeting to be held at a summit in Saudi Arabia, but no dates have been set yet.
US and Ukrainian leaders are still worried about Russia’s actions. They want Europe to create its own armed forces as a defense against Russian aggression.
