RIYADH: US and Russian officials held more than four hours of talks in Riyadh on Tuesday (Feb 18), their first on ending the battle in Ukraine, as Kyiv and its European allies watched anxiously from the sidelines and Moscow raised a significant new demand.
Interfax information company quoted Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov as saying the talks went properly, and situations have been mentioned for a gathering between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Ushakov mentioned a summit was unlikely to happen subsequent week. However the talks within the Saudi capital underscored the speedy tempo of US efforts to halt the battle, lower than a month after Trump took workplace and 6 days after he spoke by telephone to Putin.
Even whereas the assembly was underway, Russia signalled a hardening of its calls for.
Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova informed reporters in Moscow it was “not sufficient” for NATO to not admit Ukraine as a member. She mentioned the alliance should go additional by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would be part of at a future, unspecified, date.
“In any other case, this drawback will proceed to poison the environment on the European continent,” she mentioned. There was no fast response from NATO members or the US.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has constantly demanded NATO membership as the one method to assure Kyiv’s sovereignty and independence from its nuclear-armed neighbour.
He and European leaders are anxious that Trump might reduce a hasty cope with Moscow that ignores their safety pursuits, rewards Russia for its invasion and leaves Putin free to threaten Ukraine or different nations sooner or later.
Critics say that Trump’s group, by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and saying that Kyiv’s need to win again all its misplaced territory is an phantasm, has made main concessions prematurely. US officers say they’re merely recognising actuality.
Ukraine says no peace deal will be made on its behalf. “We, as a sovereign nation, merely won’t be able to simply accept any agreements with out us,” Zelenskyy mentioned final week.
