Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed a demand that Kyiv be included in any talks to end its war with Russia after the United States and Russia agreed to create a team to negotiate a halt to the fighting. Ukraine was not represented at the talks between the US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh yesterday. He told this to reporters during a visit to Turkiye,where he held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said that Ukraine wantsno one to decide anything behind its back. He said no decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy added that he was due to travel to Saudi Arabia today but has now postponed his trip to Riyadh until March 10 as he did not want “any coincidences”. The meeting in Riyadhmarked the first time that US and Russian officials have met to discuss ways tohalt the fighting that escalated with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukrainein February 2022.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflictin Ukraine as soon as possible”, the US State Department said. US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told reporters in Riyadh that the war must come to a permanent end, and this would involve negotiations over territory.
