Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv will not recognize any peace talks made without its involvement and will not participate in the Russia-US talks to be held in Saudi Arabia’s capital.
“Ukraine will not take part in the negotiations. Ukraine did not know they were planned. And the visit to the region was planned long before the U.S. decided to meet Russia there,” Zelenskiy said, adding that any peace talks held without Kyiv at the negotiating table “will bring no result.”
Zelenskiy made the remarks as Russia and US officials travelled to Riad on Tuesday for peace negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. Ukraine and European countries have been excluded from the talks. The swift decision to hold peace negotiations came after last week’s phone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin who agreed to start talks over ending the nearly three years of war. Last week Trump signaled readiness to make concessions to Russia.
From the US side, the talks in Saudi Arabia will be attended by National security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. However, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, will not be in attendance, US officials familiar with that matter told local media. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as well as Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov also travelled to Riad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The meeting could lay the groundwork for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Trump’s decision to exclude Ukraine from the initial stage of peace talks marks a major US policy shift over Ukraine and a decisive moment to end the war.
