US President Donald Trump has said he feels "much more confident" about reaching an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, following talks on February 18 in Saudi Arabia between American and Russian representatives.
Trump made the comment after talks in Riyadh between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials, as well as a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, concluded.
"I think I have the power to end this war," he told reporters, speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, residence.
He said he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month and added that he would not oppose a European move to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, an idea discussed during a European summit in Paris on February 17.
"If they want to do that, I'm totally okay with that," Trump said, adding that the United States has no plans to contribute troops to any contingent sent to Ukraine to provide security guarantees.
He also dismissed Ukraine's concern about not participating in the talks in Saudi Arabia, repeating his claim that, had he been president in 2022, he would have reached a deal with Russia to avert an invasion.
"Today I heard, 'oh, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years," Trump said, referring to Ukraine. "You should never have started it. You could have made a deal."
Trump did not clarify what he meant by this, but he has often implied that the war was sparked by Ukraine's desire to join NATO. Experts say the full-scale invasion by Russia was driven by Putin's imperial ambitions, not by Ukraine's aspirations for NATO, which had little support from the West at the time.
Trump added that Ukraine should hold elections, saying: "This is not something that comes from Russia, but from me and many other countries as well."
Other US officials have suggested that Ukraine could hold elections after a ceasefire agreement and that this would be "positive for democracy".
But Ukraine's constitution prohibits holding elections during the state of war, which was declared when Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and still continues after several successive extensions.
The five-year term of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was due to end in May 2024, and Putin has said he will not negotiate with Zelensky because he will not have the authority to sign a peace agreement.
In the talks in Riyadh, which were the first official high-level meetings between Washington and Moscow since the 2022 invasion, Russia and the United States agreed to create negotiating teams to find a way to end the war "as soon as possible," Rubio said.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, confirmed the agreement for the negotiating teams, but said it was "difficult" to set a date for a possible meeting between Trump and Putin.
Rubio said the European Union "has to be at the table at some point" because of the sanctions the bloc has imposed on Russia.
The sanctions were imposed as a result of the conflict, he said in an interview with the Associated Press and CNN. "To end any conflict, there must be concessions from all sides."
Rubio stressed the need for improvements in the US and Russian embassies to create missions that support peace talks, bilateral relations and cooperation in a broader sense.
"If our diplomatic channels are broken, it will be very difficult to engage consistently on a range of issues, including some other problems that could hinder broader talks on Ukraine," Rubio said.
He called for swift action to restore “normalcy” to embassies, adding that this would be “important to prepare the ground for the other two things we want to do.”
Some European leaders, alarmed by the radical shift in US policy toward Russia, fear that Washington will make serious concessions and rewrite the continent's security architecture.
Zelensky, who postponed until next month a visit to Saudi Arabia planned for February 19, said any talks to end the war must be "fair" and include European countries, including Turkey - which has offered to host the negotiations.
US national security adviser Michael Waltz said any post-war peace guarantee must be "European-led", echoing US officials' call for European allies to increase defence spending and praising Britain and France for their "greatest commitment to Ukraine's security".
During the February 17 summit in Paris, European leaders expressed their willingness to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, but warned that the level of these guarantees would depend on Washington's participation in the event of a comprehensive peace agreement.
France will host a second meeting on February 19 to discuss the war in Ukraine and European security. This time, Canada and other European countries that were not present at the previous emergency summit will participate./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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