With senior US officials about to sit with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia to negotiate bringing the three-year conflict in Ukraine to an end, news emerges that Kyiv was not invited to the table.
Ukraine was not invited, and there are no plans for Kyiv to send any representatives, a government source is quoted by BBC. This runs counter to what US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, had earlier stated, where he promised Ukraine would be part of the negotiations.
But White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, in an interview with Fox News, reaffirmed that Ukraine would be included in the negotiations. Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among the officials making the trip to Saudi Arabia, where the first US-Russia talks are to start within the next few days. Even so, Witkoff declined to confirm that a Ukrainian delegation would attend in person.
Rubio, who on Friday sat down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, is scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia. He said “the next few days” will indicate whether or not Vladimir Putin is seriously interested in peace but cautioned that “one meeting is not going to solve” the war.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically opposed any peace agreement made without the involvement of Ukraine. In a conversation with NBC News, he stated, “I will never agree on any decisions between Russia and the United States regarding Ukraine, never. This is our war, and it is our people who are suffering.”
With Ukraine’s involvement in the talks in doubt, the Saudi diplomatic initiative will be keenly observed to ascertain its influence on the conflict.
