UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan welcomes Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to Abu Dhabi, UAE, 17 February 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / Presidential Press Service
Any agreement reached during bilateral talks between the United States and Russia in Riyadh on Tuesday will not be recognised by Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
Stressing that his officials “knew nothing” about the meeting, which was announced by Trump on Thursday, Zelensky said that Kyiv regarded “any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine to be meaningless”.
Currently on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates, Zelensky is due to travel to Riyadh on Wednesday, a coincidence that he said had “no connection” with the planned Russia-US meeting, to which Kyiv will not be sending a delegation, despite US President Donald Trump saying that Ukraine would “be a part of it too”.
The first official high-level meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States for three years was confirmed on Monday by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who said one of the aims of the talks was “to negotiate a settlement in Ukraine”.
The Saudi leadership said it had also invited Ukrainian representatives to attend the talks, according to Bloomberg, though Ukrainian President Zelensky and his office have denied receiving an invitation.
Despite growing concerns that the US appears to be sidelining Ukraine in its negotiations with Russia, Trump told reporters on Sunday that Zelensky would be “involved” in the peace talks, and reiterated his previous claims that Vladimir Putin “wants to stop fighting”.
