President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed a demand that Ukraine be included in any talks on how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine after the United States and Russia agreed to create a team to negotiate a halt to the fighting.
Ukraine was not represented at the talks between the US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy condemned the meeting in Riyadh, saying that any “fair” negotiations should include Kyiv and European stakeholders.
Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Turkey, where he held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “We want no one to decide anything behind our backs … No decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine.”
He added that he had been due to travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but has now postponed his trip to Riyadh until March 10 as he did not want “any coincidences.”
The meeting in Riyadh marked the first time that US and Russian officials have met to discuss ways to halt the fighting that escalated with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyy said that to ensure a just peace, the US, Ukraine, and Europe should participate in the talks on security guarantees for Kyiv.
“Ukraine, Europe in a broad sense – and this includes the European Union, Turkiye, and the UK – should be involved in conversations and the development of the necessary security guarantees with America regarding the fate of our part of the world.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
He added that neither Ukraine nor Russia could win the war on the battlefield.
The talks in Riyadh come as fierce fighting rages on along more than 1,000km (620 miles) of front line, with Russian troops slowly but steadily advancing in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine has also seized control of a small part of Russia’s Kursk region in a surprise attack launched across the border in August 2024.
Kurt Volker, a former US Ambassador to NATO, said that a lot has been made out of “not very much” in terms of Ukraine and Europe’s involvement in talks to end the war.
“When [the US has] done these kind of discussions in the past … we had consultations with Ukraine, with the European Union, with NATO.
“We had bilateral meetings with Russia and we continued that process; that’s exactly what the Trump administration is doing now.”
Kurt Volker
Volker also noted that Trump and other senior members of the US President’s administration have met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders.
He asserted that the whole point of the meeting in Saudi Arabia was to have a first step, to see whether it is possible to make any progress with Russia on getting them to stop the war. “I personally doubt it, or at least I doubt that there will be an agreement,” he stated.
“I think it’s possible to get a ceasefire, but I am very sceptical that there can be any agreement with Russia, precisely because of the maximalist objectives that Russia has in eliminating Ukraine as a sovereign state.”
Kurt Volker
Turkey Floated As Ideal Host For Ukraine Talks
Meanwhile, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Turkey for any talks on ending the war, recalling how the sides had met in Istanbul back in 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.
He added that Turkey will be an ideal host for the possible talks between Russia, Ukraine and America in the near future.
He stated the Istanbul talks had been “an important reference point and the platform where the parties came closest to an agreement.”
Erdogan described the US-Russia meeting in Riyadh as a “diplomatic initiative started by Trump to end the war swiftly through negotiations.”
He also called previous Russia-Ukraine talks held in Turkey in 2022 “an important reference point and the platform where the parties came closest to an agreement.”
The Turkish leader also said that he supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
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