Russia and US to meet in Saudi Arabia over Ukraine talks
Talks between the United States and Russia on the war in Ukraine will begin this Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, according to CNN on February 16th.
The meeting will be attended by Secretary of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
The Saudi team, led by the country’s National Security Adviser will also be involved in the negotiations according to a Saudi official, as the country was also involved in the deal that freed US citizen Marc Fogel detained in Russia earlier this month.
Ukraine will not be present at the talks as confirmed by one of their officials. However former general Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, said “dual track” negotiations would take place in Kyiv this week.
This comes after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on February 16th that he was prepared to put British troops on the ground, should a war-ending deal be struck between Russia and Ukraine. This followed an “impromptu” call to Donald Trump from the British PM earlier on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kellogg’s speech at the Munich convention has sparked incomprehension among European leaders as the American envoy announced EU countries would not be invited to take part in negotiations in Riyadh.
This prompted European leaders to convene an “informal meeting” in Paris on February 17th to outline a European action plan in response to Trump’s recent headways. Crucially, they will have to decide whether they want to commit to sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine as Trump requested.
In an interview from Munich, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President doubted Vladimir Putin was ready to make concessions, as he reiterated his claim that Russia plans to attack other NATO countries next year.
In the phone call that kickstarted the talks, Trump acknowledged Russia’s demand that Ukraine should not become a member of NATO, among other concessions that did not leverage any change in Russia’s stance.
Zelensky warned on NBC that he would “never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine”.
BBC, CNN, the Guardian.
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