LAST UPDATE | 18 Feb

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump said he was “disappointed” to learn that Ukraine had objected to his country’s involvement in talks focused on normalising relations between the United States and Russia. 

American and Russian diplomats concluded a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today for the first of formal talks to reestablish bilateral communication between both countries.

Speaking at his residence in Mar A Lago, Florida this evening, Trump said he was “much more confident” that a deal can be secured to end the war in Ukraine despite the fact that Ukrainian representatives were not invited to join them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed his nation’s exclusion from the Riyadh gathering, the first meeting between American and Russian officials since the beginning of the invasion.

Zelensky cancelled his planned trip to the Middle East following the meeting, which lasted more than four hours. He criticised the discussions, saying efforts to end the war must involve his and EU member states.

“Ukraine, Europe in a broad sense – and this includes the European Union, Turkey, 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,” he said.

Responding to the remarks this evening, Trump said: “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat.”

He added, however, that Ukraine “could have made a deal” within the last three years themselves.

Speaking earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took part in today’s meeting, assured EU member states that they will, eventually, be invited to the table for discussions.

US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia today. Alamy Alamy

“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,” said Rubio. 

Former Russian Ambassador to the US Yuri Ushakov said: “It’s hard to say that they are getting closer, but we have been talking about it.” 

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He added that it was still not possible to talk about a date for a presidential summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. He described the talks as “not bad”.

When asked whether the two sides discussed Ukraine, Ushakov said: “Yes, we discussed and outlined our principled approaches and agreed that separate teams of negotiators on this topic will be in contact in due time.”

- Reporting by © AFP 2024, David MacRedmond, Muiris Ó Cearbhaill and Press Association

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