Ukraine will not accept agreements made in its absence at Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia, Zelenskyi says. The EU works on a major aid package for Ukraine amid concerns that Zelenskyi could be pushed into a disastrous deal with Russia, Bloomberg says. The U.S. won’t quit NATO, but may reduce its troop presence in Europe, NATO’s military committee chair says.
Ukraine will not accept agreements made in its absence at Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia, Zelenskyi says
Ukraine will not take part in talks between Russia and the United States in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Monday, speaking to reporters via video link from the United Arab Emirates, where he was on a state visit. Ukraine will not recognize a peace deal negotiated by the U.S. and Russia if it is not involved in the talks, Zelenskyi also said.
“Ukraine will not take part [in the talks]. Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results. We cannot recognize any agreements about us without us. And we will not recognize such agreements. There is probably a bilateral track there. And the U.S. has the right to do so if they have bilateral issues. To be honest, they talked about it before. Only now have they started talking publicly [about it],” Zelenskyi said.
He also told reporters that he would be visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday but that his state visit planned in advance and had nothing to do with the U.S.-Russia meeting.
“Although when I arrive in Saudi Arabia I will ask his majesty [Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman] what he knows about the topics of the talks,” Zelenskyi added.
When asked if a move to bring down oil prices was still on the table, Zelenskyi said he will raise the issue when he visits Saudi Arabia, while he believes that the U.S. President is most inclined to succeed in it.
“I don’t know who could succeed in bringing down the prices. President Trump has the biggest potential to do that, he is the strongest in the energy sector and has it in his hands. I believe that if he had set the goal, he will be able to do it,” Zelenskyi said.
After holding a telephone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on February 12, Trump indicated that he could soon meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia.
Senior officials from the U.S. and Russia are meeting next week in Saudi Arabia to pave the way for a potential leaders’ summit as soon as the end of the month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg said on February 15, citing people familiar with the matter.
Talks between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine are set to begin Tuesday, multiple sources have told CNN. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Politico said, adding that Rubio is in Riyadh with Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
However, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine-Russia talks, retired General Keith Kellogg, will not be in attendance, the officials said, according to Politico.
The Kremlin on Monday said Lavrov and Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov were heading to Saudi Arabia and will meet with U.S. representatives in Riyadh on Tuesday.
EU works on major aid package for Ukraine amid concerns that Zelenskyi could be pushed into disastrous deal with Russia, Bloomberg says
European officials are working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and support Kyiv as President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg said Sunday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
The spending plans won’t be announced until after the German election on Feb. 23 in order to avoid stirring up controversy before the vote, according to officials briefed on the plans.
A handful of EU leaders has been invited to Paris Monday to start drawing up their response after US officials spelled out in stark terms that there is a limit to how much the US is prepared to do.
European leaders have been charged with reviving the continent’s military power after almost 80 years in which they essentially outsourced much of their security to the US.
The situation is urgent because Trump is racing ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine and European officials are worried that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could be pushed into a disastrous deal unless they can quickly come up with a plan to give him military back up.
The Trump administration has told European officials that it wants to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine by Easter, according to people briefed on the conversations. Some officials said the pace of the talks, which begin this week in Saudi Arabia with top US and Russian officials, is ambitious and potentially unrealistic. Getting a resolution by the end of this year is much more likely, one person said while adding they remain in a wait-and-see mode.
[French President Emmanuel] Macron will host his counterparts from Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark Monday to discuss their response, along with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The talks will be focused on Ukraine and what kind of security guarantees European nations could agree on immediately so that Europe is not left out of Trump’s negotiations, according to one official briefed on the preparations.Officials in France and Britain also expect to discuss how willing leaders are to tell the US that they are prepared to send peacekeeping troops into Ukraine as part of a deal.
Another potential source of funding would be $300 billion of frozen Russian assets that are held mainly across a number of European countries. The topic of seizing those assets was a central discussion point in Munich, with US officials making clear to their European counterparts that Congress won’t be approving any more supplemental aid packages for Ukraine.
U.S. won’t quit NATO but may reduce troop presence in Europe, NATO’s military committee chair says
The US is likely to maintain its commitment to NATO, though it may reduce its troop presence in Europe as its priorities shift to the Indo-Pacific region, a top alliance official said, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who took over as the chair of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Military Committee last month, told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
But a withdrawal of some of the 100,000 troops stationed in Europe could be on the agenda because of “some commitments that the United States has far away from here, in the Pacific,” he said.
Still, “I don’t think there will be a huge number of Americans taken out from Europe,” the admiral said.
Cavo Dragone aligned with many NATO members in Europe calling for increased defense spending, acknowledging that shifting US priorities meant that the continent needed to boost its military strength.
“There is a kind of imbalance, so we need to re-balance,” the admiral said, calling the notion that Europe isn’t able to defend itself “blasphemy.”
The US Defense Department didn’t respond to a request seeking comment.