Ukraine has not been invited to negotiations between the United States and Russia that seek to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.
These peace talks are set to begin in Saudi Arabia this week. U.S. President Donald Trump said the peace process was underway last week after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, without consulting Ukraine or European nations.
“I saw that someone said that there would be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I do not know what it is,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Keith Kellogg, the United States’ special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said on Saturday that Ukraine would attend the meeting in Saudi Arabia. However, Ukrainian officials told the BBC that its delegation was not invited.
European delegations will also not be present at the talks, according to Kellogg.
“There's no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine's future or European security structure, without Europeans,” said Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
European leaders have reportedly been given a set of questions asking which resources these nations could send to Ukraine to “improve its negotiating hand”, and how many troops they could contribute to enforce peace between Russia and Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron is convening a separate meeting of European leaders in response, which will discuss Europe’s exclusion from the U.S.-Russia talks, Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO, and European contributions to Ukrainian security.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine and Europe would be included in later negotiations.
“Ultimately, it will reach a point — if it's real negotiations, and we're not there yet — but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved because they're the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well,” said Rubio. “We’re just not there yet.”
