Zelenskyy has emphasized that any agreement reached without Kiev’s involvement will never be accepted by Ukraine.
Russia and the United States will meet in Saudi Arabia with high-level delegations to discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov arrived in the capital Riyadh on Monday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will represent the United States during the negotiations.
The meeting follows separate phone conversations last week between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin in an attempt to put an end to the three-year conflict.
However, because Ukraine was not invited, it will not take part in the negotiations.
Ukraine will “never accept” any agreement reached without Kiev’s involvement, Zelenskyy emphasized.
On Tuesday in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Zelenskyy will meet with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bilateral relations, the most recent events in Ukraine, and other regional and international issues.
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, the leaders of several major European nations convened in Paris on Monday to talk about security in Europe, the situation in Ukraine, transatlantic relations, and potential peace talks.
Following Trump’s direct negotiations with Putin about Ukraine peace talks without European participation, US-European ties sourced last month.
Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, revealed at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend that Europeans will not be invited to the scheduled US-Russia peace talks on Ukraine.
