The first cycle of negotiations in Riyadh on Tuesday prompted European allies to rally to Volodymyr Zelensky, nervous in the face of the perception of the American pivot to Moscow and fearing that the negotiations take place without the direct participation of Ukraine or the EU and promote Russia.
US President Donald Trump has announced a new phase of ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine between the American and Russian delegations, in a statement published by the C-SPAN public service network.
Trump said the negotiations would take place in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on February 25, a week after the first cycle that took place in the same city on Tuesday.
At the end of the meeting, the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the two parties were agreed to pursue three objectives: restore the workforce in their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, create a high -level team to support Peace talks in Ukraine and explore closer relations and economic cooperation.
However, he pointed out that these interviews, in which his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and other senior Russian officials participated, marked the start of a conversation and that there was still a lot to do.
Lavrov, for his part, described the meeting of “very useful”.
No Ukrainian officials were present, while the country slowly loses ground in the face of more Russian troops, almost three years after Moscow launched a total invasion of his little neighbor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country would accept no results from the negotiations, since Kyiv did not participate, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia, scheduled for last Wednesday.
European allies also expressed their disarray in the face of this sidelining.
Trump-Putin summit
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Ryabkov, said that preparations were underway for a top meeting between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, marking a radical change compared to Moscow’s isolation by the West because of his war in Ukraine.
Addressing the Russian state media, Ryabkov said that a possible summit between Messrs Trump and Putin could give rise to large discussions on global issues, and not only on the war in Ukraine.
“The question is to start advancing towards the normalization of relations between our countries, to find ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, which are numerous, Ukraine by being part” -It declared.
However, he said that efforts to organize such a meeting were only in their beginnings and that its realization would require “the most intensive preparatory work”.
This first cycle of peace negotiations prompted European allies to join Mr. Zelenskynervous in the face of the perception of the American pivot towards Moscow and fearing that peace negotiations will take place without the direct involvement of Ukraine and promote Russia.
Friday, the tenant of the White House seemed to return to his previous comments which Kyiv wrongly accused of having triggered the warbut he insisted that Zelensky and former American president Joe Biden should have done more to get along with Mr. Putin.
“Russia has attacked, but it should not have let it go,” he said in a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, referring to the Russian leader.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Russian army crossed the border on February 24, 2022 during a total invasion that Putin tried to justify by falsely affirming that it was necessary to protect Russian -speaking civilians from eastern Ukraine and prevent the country D ‘join NATO.
Additional sources • Adaptation: Serge Duchêne
