Ukraine: Confusion Arises over Peace Talks

US officials have assured Ukraine that its representatives will be at the negotiating table with Russia, Orda reports, citing the BBC.

This development follows President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's warning that his country would not agree to a peace deal negotiated without its participation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington does not intend to isolate Ukraine from the negotiations and that it would be foolish to do so.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Moscow understands that Ukraine will participate in the negotiations but considers "Washington their main counterpart," the Russian Interfax writes.

The first meeting between Moscow, Washington, and Kyiv is expected to be in Saudi Arabia next week.

Meanwhile, Fox News journalist Nana Sajaia, citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official, reported that Ukraine “was not invited and was not informed” about the upcoming negotiations.

The adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office head, Mykhailo Podolyak, made a similar statement: 

There is nothing on the table to discuss today, he said on Saturday.

Politico, citing American sources, reported on Saturday that senior US officials have already left for Saudi Arabia for talks with Russia. 

EU Involvement?

U.S. Presidential Special Representative Keith Kellogg said in his speech in Munich that he did not consider the “physical” presence of Europeans at the negotiations to end the war mandatory.

Against that backdrop, EU leaders have set an emergency summit on Ukraine, while plans are reportedly underway to have their peacekeepers in Ukraine upon securing a peace deal. 

The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia may occur at the end of February. Details remain unconfirmed.

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff should head the American delegation at the upcoming talks.

At the same time, reports indicate that Putin is also assembling a team of "diplomatic heavyweights," such as Yuri Ushakov, chief Kremlin foreign-policy adviser with more than half a century of involvement in diplomacy, and Sergei Naryshkin, who served with Putin in the Soviet KGB.

Kirill Dmitriev, a financier close to Putin's inner circle, could function as an unofficial intermediary. 

Naryshkin is the Head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service and faced a visibly displeased Putin after Russia's initial failures in its war against Ukraine.

Original Author: Rimma Karatayeva