US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday, the 13th of February, that Ukraine will have a seat at the table in any peace talks with Russia to end the war and that US and Russian officials will meet in Munich on Friday, with Ukraine also invited, although Kyiv said it would be premature to talk to Moscow at a security conference on Friday, reports Reuters.
On Wednesday, Trump admitted publicly for the first time that he had spoken to Putin, followed by a call with Zelenskyy. Trump said he believed the two leaders wanted peace.
“They [Ukraine] are part of it [peace talks]. We would have Ukraine, and we’ll have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people involved,” Trump said.
Asked if he trusted Putin, he replied: “I believe he would want something to happen. I trust him on that.”
Trump announced that US and Russian officials will meet in Munich on Friday and that Ukraine has also been invited.
“I don’t know exactly who from each country will be there, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine and from the US will be there,” Trump added.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, said that Kyiv was not planning to attend talks with the Russian side at the annual Munich security conference on Friday and believed that the US, Europe and Ukraine needed to have a common position before talking to Moscow. Russia, which is not officially part of the annual forum in Germany, did not comment.
Trump also told reporters that a meeting of senior officials, though not leaders, from all three countries would be held next week in Saudi Arabia with the aim of ending the war.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybih the need for “bold diplomacy” to end the war, the State Department said.
Russian financial markets rose sharply, and the price of Ukrainian debt soared on the possibility of the first talks in years to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.
Trump’s unilateral talks with Putin on Wednesday, accompanied by apparent concessions to Ukraine’s key demands, caused alarm in Kyiv and in Europe and NATO allies, who expressed fears that the White House could strike a deal without them.
“As a sovereign state, we simply will not be able to accept any agreement without us,” said Zelenskyy.
Ukraine will “of course” participate in peace talks in some way, but there will also be bilateral talks between the US and Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The United Arab Emirates has notified the US that it is willing to hold talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
European officials have publicly taken an extremely tough line on Trump’s peace talks with Putin, saying that any agreement will be impossible unless they and the Ukrainians are also involved.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday that only Ukrainian President Zelenskyy can negotiate with Russia on behalf of his country to end the war and warned that “peace, which is capitulation” would be “bad news for everyone”, including the US.
“The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably and credibly willing to agree to a ceasefire on such a basis. After that, it is up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia,” Macron said.
“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” said European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. She also condemned the obvious concessions offered earlier.
A European diplomatic source said that ministers at the Munich conference starting on Friday had agreed to engage in an “open and demanding dialogue” with US officials.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration for the first time openly stated that Ukraine’s territorial and NATO expectations were unrealistic and that US troops would not be deployed in Ukraine to guarantee security.
But on Thursday, John Coale, President Donald Trump’s deputy envoy to Ukraine, said that the US had not ruled out a possible NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to pre-2014 borders, contradicting earlier comments.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that
the world is lucky to have Trump, who is “the best negotiator on the planet, bringing both sides together to negotiate peace”.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow was “surprised” by Trump’s willingness to seek a solution.
Some Ukrainians have seen Trump’s actions as a betrayal, while others are ready to compromise on peace after three years of war.
At least Trump was open about the limited US support, said Timofiy Milovanov, President of the Kyiv School of Economics.
“The difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump says out loud what Biden thought and did regarding Ukraine,” he said on social media of Biden, who pledged full support but delayed aid, allowing Russia to regroup.