•Zelensky, Trump and Putin
Russia and the United States yesterday agreed to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion.
Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point”, following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, reports AFP.
Some European leaders, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed his nation’s exclusion from the Riyadh gathering, which lasted for more than four hours.
He said that any talks aimed at ending the war should be “fair” and involve European countries, including Turkey — which offered to host negotiations.
“This will only be feeding Putin’s appetite,” a Ukrainian senior official requesting anonymity told our correspondent, referring to the launch of talks without Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible”, the US State Department said.
Washington added that the sides had also agreed to “establish a consultation mechanism” to address “irritants” to Russia and America’s relationship, noting the sides would lay the groundwork for future cooperation.
Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, confirmed the negotiating teams’ appointment but said it was “difficult” to discuss a date for a potential Trump-Putin meeting.
– ‘Heard each other’ –
The meeting marks a major diplomatic coup for Moscow, which had been isolated for three years under the previous US administration of then-president Joe Biden.
Moscow’s economic negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, said Western attempts to isolate Russia had “obviously failed”, revelling in the talks.
“We did not just listen but heard each other, and I have reason to believe the American side has better understood our position,” Lavrov told reporters.
The veteran diplomat noted that Russia opposed any deployment of NATO-nation troops to Ukraine as part of an eventual ceasefire.
European allies publicly diverged this week over the question of whether they would be open to sending truce peacekeepers to Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was prepared to consider committing British soldiers.
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday told a regional newspaper that while Paris was not “preparing to send ground troops, which are belligerent to the conflict, to the front”, it was considering, sending “experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone”.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that any debate on the matter was “completely premature”.
Macron said he would host another round of talks with European and non-European nations today, after an emergency meeting on Monday in Paris which brought together a small number of key European countries.
Russia sketched out some of its perspectives on future talks, arguing that settling the war required a reorganisation of Europe’s defence agreements.
Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat on its flank.
Before invading Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded NATO pull out of central and eastern Europe.
Rubio had briefed key European ministers on the Riyadh talks yesterday, acknowledging that Europe would need to be involved at some point.
“There are other parties that have sanctions (on Russia), the European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well,” Rubio told them.
– ‘How to start negotiations’ –
The negotiations at Riyadh’s Diriyah Palace in Riyadh began without visible handshakes.
Both Russia and the United States had cast yesterday’s meeting as the beginning of a potentially lengthy process and downplayed the prospects of a breakthrough.
Trump has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine but has thus far presented no concrete plan.
The United States has told both sides that concessions will have to be made if any talks materialise.
Russia on the eve of the summit said there cannot be even a “thought” on it giving up territory seized from Ukraine.
The Kremlin yesterday said that Ukraine had the “right” to join the European Union, but not the NATO military alliance.
It also said Putin was “ready” to negotiate with Zelensky “if necessary”,
But it again questioned his “legitimacy” — a reference to his five-year term expiring last year, despite Ukrainian law not requiring elections during wartime.
The Ukrainian leader was in Turkey yesterday for discussions on the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
