Zelenskyy says Ukraine does not recognize any agreements in Saudi Arabia
17 February 2025 17:33
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he did not know what the representatives of the United States and Russia would talk about in Saudi Arabia, but Ukraine would not recognize any agreements reached there regarding our country. He said this during a videoconference with Ukrainian journalists, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
During the conference, the president was asked about the upcoming meeting in Saudi Arabia: “Will Ukraine participate in these negotiations one way or another, and how do you view the very fact of such negotiations?” Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered as follows:
“Ukraine will not participate. Ukraine did not know anything about it. Ukraine considers any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as [having] no result. And we cannot recognize any agreements about us without us. And we will not recognize such agreements.”
As if he did not know what the negotiators would be talking about, Zelenskyy suggested that they had their own “bilateral track.”
“Probably, countries have a bilateral track, and they have the right to do so, I mean the United States, if they have bilateral issues. And, to be honest, they had been talking about it before, but only now they started talking publicly. Back then, it was a bad manners to talk to the aggressor. And today, all these conversations have become public,”
– zelensky said.
He clarified that his personal visit to Saudi Arabia, which, by a strange coincidence, is also scheduled for tomorrow, is absolutely unrelated to these talks.
“To clear up all the insinuations, we are on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The status of “official visit” is not obtained in a day, two days, or three days. It is simply impossible. Therefore, this has nothing to do with the things that are happening in Saudi Arabia at the level of representatives of the United States and Russia,”
– the president said.
“Of course, I will ask His Excellency Mohammed when I’m in Saudi Arabia what he knows about this. I’m just curious,”
– zelensky added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is waiting for the visit of Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, the president said. This visit is scheduled to take place around February 20.
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Negotiations in Saudi Arabia
As you know, on Tuesday, February 18, representatives of the United States and Russia are to meet in Saudi Arabia to hold preliminary talks on a truce in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Until now, it was unclear whether Ukraine’s representatives would participate. Some sources reported that they would. Three rounds of talks were supposed to take place:
- US – Russia;
- The United States – Ukraine;
- Ukraine – the United States – Russia.
Obviously, this information turned out to be unreliable, or the arrangements have changed, and there will be no Ukrainian representatives at the table.
Trump’s position on Ukraine
During the election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly said that he would stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. This deadline has already passed.
Also during the election, the media spread the so-called “Trump Plan”. The plan was that the United States would use its influence to stop the war, taking into account the status quo. To do this, Trump would force Putin and Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table. If Putin does not agree to negotiate, the United States will give Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win on the battlefield. If Zelenskyy refuses to negotiate, the United States will completely stop helping Ukraine.
This plan, in its various variations, included a provision that Russia would retain the territories it temporarily occupied and that Ukraine would not join NATO.
However, later Trump seemed to “forget” about this plan. In particular, he voiced scenarios in which he would force Russia to capitulate due to the decline in world oil prices.
After Trump was elected President of the United States, one of his advisors, Brian Lanza, said that Ukraine should forget about Crimea. Trump’s entourage, however, was quick to deny this statement and said that Lanza could not speak on his behalf.
Currently, the US Special Representative for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is talking about 100 days within which he wants to reach some kind of agreement. Of these, 28 days have already passed. During this time, the US presidential administration has established contact with the Kremlin, an American envoy has traveled to Moscow, and Trump has spoken to Putin on the phone and agreed to meet in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, in exchange for military support, US President Donald Trump demanded $500 billion worth of rare earth metals from Ukraine. He said that the US should have access to Ukraine’s natural resources, regardless of whether Kyiv manages to reach a peace deal with Russia. Ukraine sent its version of the agreement to the US, but the US rejected it, accusing Ukraine of refusing to sign the agreement and calling the decision short-sighted.
At the Munich Security Conference, U.S. representatives said that they would hold talks with the Russians in Saudi Arabia in the coming days, but Europeans were not invited.
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