Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine will “not recognize” upcoming talks between the US and Russia and denied that his country was invited to participate.
“Ukraine will not accept. Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results,” Zelensky told reporters while visiting the UAE.
The Kremlin has confirmed the peace talks with the US will be held in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The negotiations will involve high-level Russian and American officials, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Zelensky denied claims from US officials that Ukraine was invited. “Ukraine will not take part in the negotiations. Ukraine did not know they were planned. And the visit to the region was planned long before the US decided to meet Russia there,” he said.
Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, and he is expected to be joined by US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy who has been involved in some diplomacy with Russia. Lavrov will be joined by Yury Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky has said that European countries should be involved in the talks, but that idea has been rejected by both the US and Russia. Lavrov said Monday that most European leaders aren’t interested in peace.
“I don’t know what they could do at the negotiating table. If their aim is to cunningly extract a deceptive truce while secretly preparing for continued war—true to their habits and nature—then why invite them at all?” Lavrov said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
While it’s still unclear how the war will end, the Trump administration’s policy toward Russia is a dramatic shift from the Biden administration, which essentially cut off high-level contacts with Moscow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine despite the risk of nuclear war.
