Washington:
US President Donald Trump has said that Russia holds “the cards” in the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, as they hold a significant part of the Ukrainian territory, the BBC reported.
“I think the Russians want to see the war end, I really do. I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory. They have the cards,” Trump said.
US officials led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met top Russian officials for talks in Saudi Arabia on February 18. However, Ukraine was absent. Per AP reports, the two countries – Russia and the US have started to work towards ending the war in Ukraine. Since no Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky postponed his visit which was scheduled for Wednesday.
Trump responded to it at a news conference at his Florida residence by saying, “Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you been there for three years. You should have ended it three years” ago. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Zelensky had reacted to US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia from which Ukraine was excluded, and said “With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in this disinformation space”.
In other news, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will resume talks with US “on all parameters” and that they “absolutely agree with the American administration” that negotiations are needed to establish peace as soon as possible.