WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ukraine will not be on the agenda when U.S. and Russian officials meet in Istanbul on Thursday for talks over the operation of their respective diplomatic missions, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not  on the agenda," the spokesperson said by email.

Delegations involving U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed during talks in Saudi Arabia last week to open discussions, after years of tit-for-tat moves have left the two countries’ embassies barely operational.