High-level negotiations between the US and Russia have begun to discuss an end to the ongoing war in Ukraine, with both nations appointing teams for further dialogue.
US President Donald Trump on Feb 19 stated that Russia wanted to put an end to the "barbarism" taking place in the conflict.
Speaking at the White House, Trump remarked, "Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the barbarianism that's going on over there. Soldiers are being killed by the thousands every week. Apart from Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, a lot of Koreans have been killed. We want to end it."
Trump also insisted the war would never have started under his leadership, calling it a "senseless war" that "should have never happened."
US-Russia negotiations on Ukraine war
The latest round of talks began on Feb 18 at Riyadh's Diriyah Palace, marking the first high-level discussions between the US and Russia since the 2022 invasion. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to appoint teams to work toward ending the war "as soon as possible."
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the negotiations, denouncing Ukraine’s exclusion from the discussions. "We will not accept any outcome from talks where Ukraine is not an active participant," he stated.
Trump, however, suggested Ukraine could have avoided the war altogether. "Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you've been there for three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," he said.
Rubio noted that European nations enforcing sanctions on Russia would be invited to join the discussions at a later stage.
Meanwhile, Russian foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the appointment of negotiating teams but called it "difficult" to set a date for a potential Trump-Putin meeting. Trump had previously indicated plans to meet the Russian president before the end of the month.
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