Ukraine will not attend a summit between US and Russian officials on how to end the war as they were not aware of it.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he would travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian representatives on how to end the Ukraine conflict after Donald Trump agreed to talks with Vladimir Putin.
But Kyiv said it would not be attending, after apparently not receiving notice that the talks were happening - despite US officials saying they were invited.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference: “I saw that someone said that there would be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I do not know what it is.”
Asked about Kyiv not being present at the talks, he added: “Well, this is not a serious conversation, it seems to me."
Mr Witkoff said he would make his way to Saudi Arabia for the talks on Sunday, telling a Fox News interview: "I'll be traveling there with the national security advisor, and we'll be having meetings at the direction of the president, and hopefully we'll make some really good progress."
The upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia will be among the first high-level in-person discussions between Russian and US officials in years ahead of a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Ukrainian leaders and officials in other European countries have publicly expressed frustration over their lack of presence at the negotiations.
Ukrainian officials said they were not invited to the upcoming meeting in Saudi Arabia and that they would not be bound by any agreement that comes out of any dialogue there.
But Mr Witkoff pushed back against the idea that the Ukrainians have been cut out of talks with the Russians.
In the Fox interview, he said: “I don't think this is about excluding anybody. In fact, it's about including everybody."
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron prepares to host European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer on Monday for an emergency summit over Trump’s plan to end the war.
The French presidency said on Sunday Macron had called for "consultation talks" to gauge European reaction towards the proposed meeting between Trump and Putin.
Others at the summit meeting will be German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa from the European Union.
Trump stunned European allies last week when he announced he had held a call with Putin without consulting with them and would start a peace process.
