The first round of negotiations in Riyadh on Tuesday prompted European allies to rally around Volodymyr Zelenskyy, nervous about Trump’s perceived pivot to Moscow and fears that talks would take place without Ukraine’s direct involvement and favour Russia.
US President Donald Trump has announced a new phase of Ukraine war ceasefire negotiations between American and Russian delegations in a statement published by the public service network, C-Span.
Trump said the talks would take place in the Saudi capital Riyadh on 25 February, a week after the first round which took place in the same city on Tuesday.
After the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides had broadly agreed to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.
He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian officials, marked the beginning of a conversation and more work needs to be done.
Lavrov hailed the meeting as “very useful.”
No Ukrainian officials were present, which came as the country is slowly losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday.
