European foreign ministers and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh, Kallas said on X on Feb. 18.
A U.S. delegation met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and top presidential aide Yuri Ushakov in Riyadh on Feb. 18 to initiate talks on ending the war, the first official meeting between the two sides since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine was excluded entirely from the discussions.
"Russia will try to divide us. Let's not walk into their traps. By working together with the U.S., we can achieve a just and lasting peace — on Ukraine's terms," Kallas wrote on X.
No concrete decisions were announced following the U.S.-Russia talks, but Ukraine's exclusion from the meeting sparked alarm in Kyiv and Europe.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stressed that no decisions about Ukraine's future can be made without Ukraine's participation.
Rubio claimed on Feb. 16 that the Riyadh talks were an exploratory first step rather than official negotiations and that Ukraine and Europe would participate once the official discussions began.
Chris York
