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Trump and Zelenskyy Clash After Kyiv Excluded From US-Russia Talks
Above: Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting with Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 12, 2025. Image copyright: Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Facts
Relations between US Pres. Donald Trump and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy took a turn for the worse this week, after the US and Russia held high-level talks in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine's participation on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy was due to travel to Riyadh for his own talks with US officials but said he canceled the trip after learning of their plans to meet a Russian delegation through the media. "Decisions on how to end the war in Ukraine cannot be made without Ukraine, nor can any conditions be imposed," he said.
Trump appeared to take issue with the remarks, telling reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday: "Today I heard, 'Oh well, we weren't invited.' ... Well, you been there for three years. You should've ended it after three years. You should've never started it. You could've made a deal."
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
America's talks with Russia are concerned with bringing a serious end to the war. It's disappointing that Ukraine feels left out because it didn't take part in one conversation, but the truth is that Zelenskyy has overseen three years of war, and if he had wanted peace, he could have sought a deal much sooner.
Pro-Ukraine narrative
Ukraine is of course thankful for everything the US has done, but it would like to see a little more truthfulness from the Trump camp. Talks with Putin bring him out of a justified global isolation, and has been portraying the Russian president as the victim though it was he who invaded his neighbor.