Trump criticises Ukraine after US-Russia talks
Donald Trump has taken aim at Ukraine after its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was a "surprise" that his country was not invited to peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the Ukraine war.
Trump said he was "disappointed" by Ukraine's reaction and said the country "could have made a deal" to end the war, which was sparked by a full-scale Russian invasion almost three years ago.
His comments came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country won't accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia.
Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war.The meeting in Riyadh was the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russian and American delegations are known to have met face-to-face.
At the talks were US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, as well as Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov and the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev. European leaders held a hastily arranged meeting in Paris on Monday to discuss their response to the apparent rapprochement between Russia and the US under President Trump - but did not agree a unified position.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said any Ukraine deal would require a "US backstop" to deter Russia from attacking its neighbour again and said he would consider deploying UK troops to Ukraine.
