The US and Russia have begun peace talks on the Ukraine war - without Ukraine.
US and Russian officials are in Riyadh on Tuesday for the highest-level talks to date between the two former Cold War foes on ending the war. They are expected to discuss ways to end the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine and restore American-Russian relations. Their talks could pave the way for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sat opposite U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff at a polished wooden table with three large white floral arrangements. The officials ignored shouted questions from reporters asking whether the U.S. was sidelining the Ukrainians and what concessions Washington was demanding of Moscow.
Click here for live updates on the talks and the war
Ukraine, which is not attending, says no peace deal can be made on its behalf. "We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week.
European governments, alarmed at the possibility that Russia and the United States could sideline them from negotiations that will determine the future security of the continent, have also demanded a role in peace talks.
On Monday, Ukraine’s European allies rushed to shore up military support for Kyiv and create a regional power bloc ahead of the talks they have been frozen out of.
Keir Starmer said ahead of an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris that he was prepared to put British troops “in harm’s way” to ensure Ukraine’s security as part of a future peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
The security of Ukraine, he said, was “existential for Europe”.
“I'm prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement. But there must be a US backstop because a US security guarantee is the only wayt o effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” the British Prime Minister said after the Paris meeting.
He said that he would be traveling to Washington next week where he will meet the new US President who has already ruled out a role for US troops in any peace keeping forces in Ukraine.
Sweden joined the UK in backing an international force to guarantee Ukraine’s safety, which Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said would need to number at least 150,000.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Monday, adding that negotiations would need to progress before any such decision was taken.
Emanuel Macron, who hosted the informal summit, has suggested in the past that British and French troops might be deployed to Ukraine to underwrite a peace deal with Russia.
With Ukraine and Europe shut out of the talks about the future of Ukraine, and Europe, Starmer’s efforts were part of an attempt to quickly build a European consensus around defending Kyiv whatever concessions were made by Trump’s team in future talks.
But military sources said that the UK had very limited capacity amid ongoing internal political debates about the future of the UK’s defence spending budget.
One former European general said that the British Prime Minister was being “naive”.
“He’s a hostage to fortune, offering troops before he knows what, where and when the mission is to be and what the associated risks are, who would be in command and who else would be part of this operation,” the general said.
But these efforts are being accelerated as Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister and the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, headed for the Saudi talks because their discussions exclude both Ukraine and Europe.
They are also being held against a background of Kremlin assumptions that the Trump administration is keen to re-set relations with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
"They are expected to hold a meeting with their American counterparts on Tuesday, which will focus primarily on restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations," Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman said.
"It will also be devoted to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement and the organisation of a meeting between the two presidents,” he added.
European leaders are deeply concerned that the Trump team has already given away too much ahead of talks on Ukraine and that Washington no longer sees European security as a priority.
"A war of aggression cannot be rewarded, we cannot encourage others to launch wars of aggression," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in an interview with radio station Onda Cero.
"Today I'm convinced Putin will keep attacking and bombing Ukraine. So I do not see peace on the horizon at the moment," he added.
Putin, and Trump, have support from Hungary, a Nato member which has tried to veto European Union sanctions against Russia in the past.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a live Facebook video on Monday that "pro-war" European leaders are expected to meet in Paris later today and they want to prevent a deal on peace on Ukraine.
