Attention in Europe is still focused on the war in Ukraine, the deadliest conflict on the continent since World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders expressed alarm and dismay at being shut out of the talks Riyadh. One of Kyiv’s main concerns is that Russia will be given the go-ahead to keep some of the 20% of Ukraine it has occupied.
“Ukraine did not know anything about it,” Zelenskyy warned ahead of the meeting.
Kyiv “regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognize … any agreements about us without us,” he said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he would delay a trip scheduled for Wednesday that was arranged in advance and not related to the U.S.-Russia talks.
“I will not go to Saudi Arabia,” he said. “We contacted our partners in Arabia — I have a good relationship with them. We just contacted each other and agreed that I would be there on an official visit on March 10. And we expect the USA in Kyiv.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that Russia could use the pause to remobilize and mount a fresh attack on Ukraine or target other countries in Europe.
“Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately,” Frederiksen said, reflecting the view of many in Europe that Putin would seek to dominate, if not outright occupy, more countries.
In Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that has come under heavy Russian shelling throughout the war, residents balanced their hopes for an end to the fighting with fears about Trump’s decision to leave Kyiv out of negotiations.
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