U.S. President Donald Trump has given assurances that Ukraine will indeed be involved in peace talks with Russia. This follows the uproar triggered in Kyiv and among European allies that they had not been consulted when Trump initially broached the issue of starting peace talks in a phone call to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
Trump has since told White House reporters that Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia. “We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people,” he said, insisting that he trusted and believed Putin “would like to see something happen.”
Trump did indicate that U.S. and Russian officials would meet in Munich today and that Ukraine was also invited. However, one of President Zelenskyy’s advisers said it would be premature to speak with Moscow, making it clear that Ukraine does not expect to hold talks with the Russian side at today’s annual Munich Security Conference. Kyiv believes the U.S., Europe, and Ukraine need a common position before they talk with Moscow.
According to Trump, top-level officials from all three countries are to meet in Saudi Arabia next week in the effort to end the war. Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited “the need for bold diplomacy” to achieve this when he spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
After Trump’s initial announcement of his call to Putin there was palpable concern in Kyiv and among NATO allies about the White House’s perceived readiness to negotiate directly with Moscow rather than involve the other parties directly. All were insistent that they had to be included in any peace negotiation process. Their general indignation was aggravated on learning that in his seeming eagerness to arrive at a deal with Putin, Trump had conceded that Ukraine could neither revert to its pre-2014 borders nor join NATO.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us”, President Zelenskyy said. Likewise, leaders in Europe let it be known that any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians participated.
Not mincing her words, European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said “any quick fix is a dirty deal”. She also made a point of rejecting any apparent concessions that might have been offered in advance. “Why are we giving them (Russia) everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?“, she demanded. “It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described Trump as the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace”. The Kremlin declared itself “impressed” by Trump’s position. “There is a political will, which was emphasised during yesterday’s conversation, to conduct a dialogue in search of a settlement”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The years of fighting have seen no let down of positions on either side. Moscow demands that Kyiv must part with more territory and that it remain permanently neutral as the price of any peace deal; Kyiv calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and security guarantees equivalent to NATO membership to prevent future attacks.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said Ukraine remains committed to becoming a NATO member, maintaining that this is the simplest and least expensive way the West could provide the security guarantees needed to ensure peace. “All our allies have said the path of Ukraine towards NATO is irreversible.This prospect is in our constitution. It is in our strategic interest.”
