The upcoming meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh on February 18 has drawn sharp criticism from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who has outright rejected the negotiations as meaningless. The meeting marks the highest-level discussions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine since the conflict escalated in 2022. However, Kiev’s exclusion from the talks has led Zelensky to declare that any agreement reached without Ukraine’s participation will not be recognized by his government.

Speaking to reporters on February 17, Zelensky expressed his frustration, stating, “Ukraine considers any negotiations about Ukraine that are being held without Ukraine as having no results. We will not recognize such agreements.” He emphasized that Kiev had no prior knowledge of the talks, suggesting a lack of transparency on the part of Washington and Moscow.

Zelensky also made it clear that his own visit to Saudi Arabia on February 18 was entirely separate from the US-Russia negotiations. “The visit to the region was planned long before the US decided to meet Russia there,” he insisted, as reported by Politico.

Despite Ukraine’s objections, the meeting in Riyadh is being positioned as an attempt to lay the groundwork for de-escalation and potential diplomatic pathways to resolving the conflict. According to Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, the negotiations are designed to facilitate a “real normalization” of US-Russia relations while addressing the ongoing war. However, whether they will yield tangible outcomes remains uncertain, given the deep divisions between the two sides.

The geopolitical landscape surrounding the Ukraine conflict has shifted significantly with Donald Trump’s........

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