Top American officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are in Saudi Arabia ahead of upcoming negotiations with Russian officials on ending the war in Ukraine — without any officials from Kyiv present.
The talks between U.S. and Russian diplomats are scheduled to begin Tuesday in Riyadh. According to the Trump administration, separate discussions with Ukraine will begin later this week after President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be involved in peace talks.
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"We're moving along," President Trump told reporters Sunday in regards to the negotiations. "We're trying to get peace with Russia, Ukraine and we're working very hard on it. It's a war that should have never started."
President Trump's comments come after Zelenskyy insisted that he "will never accept" any peace deal that does not include Ukraine in the negotiations. Zelenskyy has also said that Ukraine needs "real security guarantees" in order to come to the negotiating table with Putin.
"We are thankful for all the support, unity between USA — in USA around Ukraine support. ... But there is no any leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us about us," Zelenskyy said Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press."
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President Trump said last week that he spoke with both Zelenskyy and Putin in separate phone calls. Zelenskyy said his call with the president was positive but that the two did not discuss enough to "make a plan" for peace in the region.
Meanwhile, in a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump said he and Putin "agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation." President Trump also said that he and Putin have agreed to meet in both Russia and the U.S.
Ahead of the high stakes negotiations between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, officials in Europe are holding an emergency meeting Monday to also discuss the future of Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and several other European leaders are gathering over what is being described as their concern over the Trump administration's isolated effort to negotiate with Russia without involving European officials.
