Russia and the US return to talk about Ukraine’s fate. Zelensky’s anger

Two high -level and Russian high -level delegations met in Saudi Arabia for the most extensive negotiations between the two countries in three years, agreeing to start a process of planning the end of the war in Ukraine and to pursue closer cooperation, Against the background of the fears of Kiev and all of Europe that Donald Trump can push for an agreement in favor of Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, not invited to the Riad table and which was in Ankara for interviews with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the negotiations “on Ukraine without Ukraine” and asked for “Equi talks” which include in addition to Kiev, the EU, the United Kingdom and Turkey. Erdogan, for his part, described his country as “an ideal guest for possible negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States”. After the talks at the Diriyah Palace in Riad, which lasted almost five hours, The secretary of American state, Marco Rubiosaid that the parties have agreed to create a high -level team for peace talks in Ukraine and to explore “economic and investment opportunities that will emerge from a positive conclusion of the conflict in Ukraine”.

The declarations highlighted a radical change in Washington’s approach to Moscow, drastically moving away from the efforts of the Biden Administration aimed at isolating it. Despite the diplomatic acceleration, there is still little known from the peace plan of Trump for Ukraine or the will of Russia to commit himself, and Riad’s meeting offered few new clues. Rubio said he was “convinced” that Moscow wants to engage in a “serious process” to end the war and has however ensured that an agreement on Ukraine must be “acceptable” for everyone. “It must be a definitive end of the war, not temporary, as we have seen in the past. We know, it is only the reality of things, that there will have to be a discussion on the territories and there will be a discussion on security guarantees,” he said speaking to press. The head of American diplomacy assured that the Europeans – also excluded from today’s interviews, but without which a unilateral revocation of economic sanctions against Russia by Washington is difficult to – You will have to “sit at the table at some point”.

Russia A Riad has obtained what he had asked for years: to deal with equal to equal with the US, considered by the Kremlin the only responsible for the war and therefore also the only actor able to stop it. The official Russian media praise the Trump administration and its “attempt to arrange the biden -committed mess and partners”. The head of the Russian delegation, the foreign minister Serghei Lavrov, said he had perceived “Un live interest in removing artificial obstacles to the development of mutually advantageous economic cooperation“Between Russia and the United States. The implicit reference is to economic penalties. Lavrov has also been said to be sure that the US began to” better understand “the position of Moscow, reiterating on this occasion the categorical opposition of Russia to any contingent of countries Born in Ukrainian and Russian and American soil not only had they “listened” to each other, but they also “understood”. “Appoint high -level teams to start working on a solution to the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible”.

Keith Kellogg, the US Special envoy, is the first officially invested with the task of leading the negotiation by the American side. Another separate team, however, will be appointed to carry on the talks on the most purely bilateral issues. Before the beginning of the talks, Russia had stressed that the resolution of the war in Ukraine was inseparable from the reorganization of European security architecture. Russia has long been asking for the withdrawal of the forces born from Eastern Europe, considering the alliance an existential threat. In particular, he had used this topic to justify his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The administration of President Donald Trump has been very critical of European allies and not very inclined to support Kiev. Zelensky reacted hard to the Riad negotiations, of which he had not even been informed: not only did he postpone his visit to Saudi Arabia scheduled for tomorrow, but he also warned that he will never respect the “ultimatum” of Moscow . The Riad meeting closes, however, without a date for the expected Putin-Trump summit that the US president had hypothesized could already be held next week, always in the Saudi capital. Russian presidential councilor Yuri Ushakov, also at the negotiation table, observed that it is too early to talk about a rapprochement with the USA; However, he points out the official Ria Novosti agency, “As our Chinese friends say, a very thousand miles journey begins with a single step“.