Donald Trump announces second round of Ukraine peace talks with Russian diplomats
US President Donald Trump has announced a new phase of Ukraine war ceasefire negotiations between American and Russian delegations in a statement published by the public service network, C-Span.
Trump said the talks would take place in the Saudi capital Riyadh on 25 February, a week after the first round which took place in the same city on Tuesday.
After the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides had broadly agreed to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.
He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian officials, marked the beginning of a conversation and more work needs to be done.
Lavrov hailed the meeting as “very useful.”
No Ukrainian officials were present, which came as the country is slowly losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday.
European allies have also expressed dismay that they are being sidelined.
Trump-Putin summit
Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said that preparations are under way for a face-to-face meeting between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, marking a dramatic shift away from Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
Speaking to Russian state media, Ryabkov said a possible Trump-Putin summit could involve broad talks on küresel issues and not just the war in Ukraine.
“The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.
But he said efforts to organise such a meeting are at an early stage and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work.”
That first round of peace negotiations prompted European allies to rally around Zelenskyy, nervous about Trump’s perceived pivot to Moscow and fears that peace negotiations would take place without Ukraine’s direct involvement and favour Russia.
On Friday, Trump appeared to walk back his earlier comments that falsely blamed Kyiv for starting the war but insisted that Zelenskyy and former President Joe Biden should have done more to come to terms with Putin.
“Russia attacked, but they shouldn’t have let him attack,” he said during a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, referring to the Russian leader.
Russia’s army crossed the border on 24 February, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.
