Kyiv has ruled out talks with Russian officials at the Munich Security Conference after Donald Trump claimed a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials was scheduled for Friday.
Trump announced on Thursday that a three-way meeting would take place at the Munich Security Conference, which starts on Friday, featuring “high-level people” from Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
He said: “They are having a meeting in Munich tomorrow. Russia is going to be there with our people.
“Ukraine is also invited... not sure exactly who’s going to be there from any country, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine and from the United States.”
However, Ukraine quickly ruled out participating in talks with Russian officials, saying that no such discussions were planned.
Dmytro Lytvyn, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told reporters on Thursday: “A common position [with allies] must be on the table for a conversation with the Russians. For the moment, there is nothing on the table.
“Discussions with the Russians are not envisaged.”
Casting further doubt over the possibility of talks is the fact that no senior Russian official has been invited to the conference.
The Kremlin said it had nothing new to say about Ukraine peace efforts, when asked about Trump’s statement.
“There are economic tools of leverage; there are, of course, military tools of leverage' the U.S. could use against Putin,” Vance told the newspaper.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg are also expected to join the U.S. delegation.
Sharp reaction to Trump-Putin call
Kyiv and the EU have reacted strongly to Washington after Trump held a 90-minute phone call on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two agreed to initiate peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Although Trump later spoke with Zelenskyy, his conversation with Putin sparked fears that Kyiv could be sidelined in discussions about its own future.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy said: “We, as an independent country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us.
“Today it's important that everything does not go according to Putin's plan, in which he wants to do everything to make his negotiations bilateral [with the U.S.].”
He said it was important for the United States and Ukraine to draw up a plan to end the war before talking to the Russian side.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also criticized Trump's administration for engaging with Moscow without consulting Kyiv or Europe.
She said: “It is clear that any deal behind our backs will not work. Any agreement will need also Ukraine and Europe being part of it. Why are we giving them [Russia] everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?”
“It's appeasement. It has never worked,” Kallas said, adding: “Any quick fix is a dirty deal.”
Ukraine may need to cede territory, says Kellogg
On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg told Fox News that it is currently unrealistic for Ukraine to recover all of its territories within the 2014 borders, suggesting that Kyiv may need to cede some territory without officially recognizing it as part of Russia.
He said: “You are not going back to 2014 [borders] and what they [Ukrainians] had before the Russians went into Crimea. That’s understandable. So I think what we are going to have is some type of agreement on the potential loss of territory.
“But, look, you don't necessarily have to acknowledge that.”
Kellogg likened the situation to the Baltic states, whose annexation by the Soviet Union was never formally recognized by the U.S.
“We said that they were just under Soviet domination. And I think, maybe, if you look at this for a long term, the potential long term, but that’s part of the negotiations.”
