Ukraine Not Invited To Peace Talks Between Putin & Trump In Saudi Arabia

🇺🇦 Ukraine has not received an invitation to the upcoming talks between the 🇺🇸 US and 🇷🇺 Russia, which are reportedly set to take place next week in Saudi Arabia, informs FOX journalist Nana Sajaia.

Russian and US officials are set to meet in Saudi Arabia next week to start talks aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine, Reuters and AFP reported citing US officials.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will form the US delegation at the meeting, which may pave the way for a potential leaders’ summit as soon as the end of the month, the news agencies reported.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine had not been invited to the talks and that Kyiv would not engage with Russia before consulting with strategic partners.

“We don’t have any papers, any invitations, and it’s something strange for me to speak in this case, in this format, if before we don”t have any negotiations between us and our strategic partners,” he said during the Munich Security Conference. “As I remember, Russia is not our strategic partner.”

Rubio and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, discussed the situation in Ukraine in a call on Saturday, as well as the removal of “unilateral barriers” set by previous US administration, according to Moscow.

“The two sides expressed their mutual willingness to interact on pressing international issues, including the settlement around Ukraine,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said the pair agreed on regular contacts to prepare for a meeting between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his US counterpart, Donald Trump.

Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Europe will be consulted – but ultimately excluded – from the talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US. “To my European friends, I would say: ‘Get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending’,” Kellogg said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Zelenskyy told the Munich conference that the time had come for a European army to be created. “Our army alone is not enough, we need your support,” he said on Saturday, adding that the “old days” when the US supported Europe “just because it always had” are over.

He also told leaders and officials that he would not take NATO membership for Ukraine off the table and insisted that no decisions should be taken on ending Russia’s war without Kyiv and Europe.

Source:- RFE || The Guardian

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