While U.S. officials characterized the talks as the first step in a peace deal, the Russians are portraying them as a way to end Moscow’s isolation.

The United States formally brought Russia in from the cold Tuesday with high-level talks aimed at ending Moscow’s war with Ukraine and reestablishing long-frozen diplomatic and economic ties. A Trump administration team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down for four hours with senior representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Riyadh,

Russia on Tuesday demanded NATO scrap its 2008 promise to one day give Ukraine membership of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and dismissed the idea that NATO member forces could be keepers of the peace under some sort of ceasefire deal.