Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
As Saudi Arabia gears up to facilitate talks between top diplomats from Russia and the United States aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is also traveling to the middle-eastern nation – but a day after the Russia-US meeting.
As the world awaits the update from high-level meeting between Moscow and Washington, it is important to note that Ukraine has not been invited to these diplomatic talks, leaving European nations aghast with Washington’s dramatic change in policy towards Moscow after the Trump administration took charge.
This will be the first time that diplomats from Russia and the United States will meet for talks since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Donald Trump has, on a number of occasions, been vocal about a swift resolution to the three-year-long war.
WHY IS ZELENSKY HEADING TO SAUDI ARABIA?
Ukraine’s President Zelensky however, said Kyiv “does not know anything about” the upcoming talks in Riyadh, adding that “Kyiv cannot recognise any agreements or things discussed about us without us.”
President Zelensky’s spokesperson has said that he will be in Riyadh a day after the Russia-US meeting as was announced along with his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey. He stressed that President Zelensky will not be meeting any officials either from Russia or from the US during his visit.
The spokesperson, Sergiy Nykyforov, said the stopover of President Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska in Saudi Arabia is part of a “long-planned” official visit.
A RUSSIA-US SUMMIT SOON?
The Kremlin has described this meeting as an effort by both nations to repair ties between Moscow and Washington. “The meeting is primarily devoted to restoring the whole complex of Russian-American relations,” the statement read.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin’s top aide Yuri Ushakov, along with a top-level delegation will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and other top diplomats from the United States.
Marco Rubio, who arrived in Riyadh today, will also be meeting top officials over the situation in Gaza.
Moscow has shut the door on Europe and has said that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin want to move on from “abnormal relations” between their countries during the Ukraine war, and that it saw no place for Europeans to be at any negotiating table.
Russia has repeatedly slammed NATO’s increasing presence in central and eastern Europe and before it launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine, Moscow had demanded that NATO pull its troops, equipment, and bases out of several eastern European member states that were under Moscow’s sphere of influence during the Cold War.
Sidelining Europe, the Kremlin also said that this meeting will explore the possibility of a US-Russia Summit led by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
SIDELINED EUROPE CALLS FOR URGENT MEETING
Meanwhile, European leaders met in Paris to discuss Washington’s massive policy shift towards Moscow and the war in Ukraine. In last week’s telephonic conversation between Trump and Putin, the two leaders discussed the war in Ukraine and the need for negotiations and dialogue to end the conflict.
This led to a sudden call by European leaders to hold an urgent meeting in Paris on Monday. The meeting was scheduled for 1500 hrs GMT (8 pm IST). They believe that a meeting between Trump and Putin could be a possibility “very soon”.
Hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace, the European meeting brought together leaders from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the heads of the European Council, the European Commission and NATO, reported news agency AFP.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he is willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary” in response to what he called “a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent”.
The war in Ukraine is days short of its third anniversary on February 24.
(Inputs from AFP)