The sight of senior Russian officials and American officials around the huge negotiating table is extraordinary.

For many Ukrainians, it is difficult for most people to take.

In Saudi Arabia, Moscow has achieved significant achievements: after three years of neighbor war and Western isolation, it has returned to the "top level" of global diplomacy.

Not only that, Russia is looking for the whole world, just like the named lens.

Even as Ukraine's air raid sirens continue to sound, Moscow is exactly the image Moscow wants to project.

This is not defeated Russia, forced to attend the negotiating table. It's more like the United States invites the invaders to articulate its terms.

Indeed, U.S. officials participated in the process, saying they wanted to frustrate Russia and check if it was serious about peace.

But Donald Trump has come to the conclusion. He announced last week that Russian leaders "wanted to see people stop dying" after he spoke with Vladimir Putin by phone.

Trump could have responded by telling him to withdraw all his troops.

Instead, he obviously wanted to reach an agreement with Moscow to end the war and move on as he promised his voters.

After more than four hours of talks in Riyadh, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared in the media and announced the first step to reaching the negotiations, both sides will form.

He concluded that Russia was ready to conduct a "serious process" to end the war.

But why is he so sure?

On the table is Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov, who still imposes sanctions on what the U.S. Treasury Department calls Russia’s “brutal war.”

When Lavrov met Russian media, he told them that the United States had proposed a moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure.

The minister's reply was: "We explained that we have never jeopardized the energy supply of civilians, only for things that directly serve the Ukrainian army."

That's not true.

I personally have walked through the ruins of civilian power plants directly targeted by Russian missiles.

Although there is enough evidence that it is unreliable, this is the country the United States is trying to interact with.

Russia also showed zero signs of acknowledging any position: Why has the Trump administration agreed that Ukraine will never join NATO as Moscow demands and will not regain its occupied land?

That's why, for Ukraine's allies, it's not just the image of us sitting on the Jarred Shiny Saudi table with Russian officials. This is also how they speak.

Laying the foundation for future investments, it sounds like the hope of abandoning sanctions: it is impossible to estimate Russia's war of aggression, and therefore, just rewards.

Of course, these are early days.

But in Moscow, officials and state media believe that Russia’s return to the beginning of where it belongs: face to face with the United States, which is equal.