{"id":126775,"date":"2025-02-16T23:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T23:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-us-and-russia-travel-to-saudi-arabia-to-conduct-talks-without-ukraine-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-02-16T23:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T23:45:08","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-us-and-russia-travel-to-saudi-arabia-to-conduct-talks-without-ukraine-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-us-and-russia-travel-to-saudi-arabia-to-conduct-talks-without-ukraine-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: US and Russia travel to Saudi Arabia to conduct talks \u2018without Ukraine\u2019 – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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European leaders are set to join a crisis meeting to face down the threat of Russia
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<\/a>Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed he is prepared to put a British troops into Ukraine<\/a> to enforce a peace deal with Russia if necessary.
The prime minister<\/a> acknowledged this could put British peacekeeping forces \u201cin harm\u2019s way\u201d if Vladimir Putin attacks again, but said \u201cany role in helping to guarantee Ukraine\u2019s security\u201d would help guarantee \u201cthe security of this country\u201d.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph<\/em>, the Prime Minister said the UK was \u201cready to play a leading role\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s defence and security, which \u201cmeans being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary\u201d.
\u201cI do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm\u2019s way,\u201d he said.
It is the first time he has explicitly said he was considering sending British troops to Ukraine, having previously only hinted that they could be involved in safeguarding Ukraine after a ceasefire
His statement comes before he is set to join European leaders for emergency talks in Paris<\/a> as they scramble to respond to Donald Trump\u2019s push for a deal with Putin.
David Lammy<\/a> has warned that failure to deal with Russia<\/a> over Ukraine<\/a> would cost the UK billions, as the US said Europe would be excluded from talks over the country\u2019s future.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the foreign secretary said Ukraine had an \u201cirreversible pathway towards Nato\u201d and pointed to the approximate 7 per cent of gross domestic product that countries spent on defence in the Cold War, against the current UK rate of 2.3 per cent.
\u201cDon\u2019t think that not meeting the challenge now somehow saves us money down the line,\u201d Mr Lammy said on Saturday. \u201cIf Ukraine were to fail, the costs would be considerably more.\u201d
Read the full article here:<\/em>
Chris Steele, who was head of the Russia desk at MI6, said it was \u201cfarcical\u201d that peace negotiations could take place without the involvement of Ukraine and Europe.
Asked on Times Radio what he thinks the outcome of the talks will be and if US President Donald Trump is going to be \u201cessentially aligning himself\u201d with Russian President Vladimir Putin and giving concessions to Mr Putin, he said: \u201cYes, I think Trump seems to want a deal at any price. And I think there will be some kind of attempt to enforce a deal over the head of the Ukrainians.
\u201cI mean it\u2019s farcical that you would have a peace negotiation which Ukraine wasn\u2019t involved, or indeed European powers weren\u2019t involved. Europe, after all, has provided more aid to Ukraine than the US has over this last period, so I foresee quite a difficult situation developing.
\u201cThere may well be some kind of ceasefire, but it may well flare up again. You have to have security guarantees to back any ceasefire, and at the moment, those security guarantees, certainly from the United States, do not appear to be on the table.\u201d
Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the risk Russia will occupy Europe is \u201c100 per cent\u201d if the US leaves Nato, adding intelligence showed 150,000 of Putin\u2019s soldiers amassing in neighbouring Belarus.
The Ukrainian president issued the stark warning during an interview with NBC News, where he stressed that he trusted President Donald Trump, but would not accept any ceasefire deal conducted without Ukraine at the negotiating table.
Mr Zelensky voiced his concern that Putin was waiting for the weakening of Nato, and that the withdrawal of US military support in Europe would place his country and former Soviet bloc countries in a \u201cdifficult position\u201d.
He told Kristen Welker: \u201cThere are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania because we believe \u2013 we believe that Putin will wage war against Nato.\u201d
Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he is prepared to put a peacekeeping force into Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia, acknowledging this could put British troops \u201cin harm\u2019s way\u201d if Vladimir Putin attacks again.
The Prime Minister is joining European leaders for emergency talks in Paris as they scramble for a strategy in response to US President Donald Trump\u2019s push for a deal with Russian president Mr Putin and fears the US will reduce its defence commitments in the continent.
Sir Keir said the crisis was a \u201conce in a generation moment\u201d and an \u201cexistential\u201d question for Europe.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister said the UK was \u201cready to play a leading role\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s defence and security, including the commitment of \u00a33 billion a year until 2030.
But he said that along with military aid to Ukraine \u201cit also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary\u201d.
\u201cI do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm\u2019s way,\u201d Sir Keir said.
Talks on Ukraine with the participation of the Russian delegation are expected to take place in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported late on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
America\u2019s unwelcome attacks on Europe and undermining of Ukraine have been a rude awakening for leaders across the continent, writes Sam Kiley:<\/strong><\/a><\/a>
Analysis: America\u2019s unwelcome attacks on Europe and undermining of Ukraine have been a rude awakening for leaders across the continent, writes Sam Kiley
Donald Trump said he believes he could meet “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he was working hard to achieve peace, and said he believes both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky want to stop fighting.
His comments come as the United States and Russia are preparing for initial talks in Saudi Arabia in the coming days.
Ukraine will not be joining talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia this week, it has been reported.
Top US diplomats have flown out to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, marking the first high-level in-person discussions between Russian and US officials in years. The summit is meant to precede a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, Ukrainian president Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had not been invited to the talks, and a government source told the BBC<\/em> that Kyiv would not be attending.
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United Arab Emirates ahead of a meeting between top Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia
The Ukrainian president confirmed is arrival in the UAE on Sunday, after he attended the Munich Security Conference.
He said the top priority for his visit was to ensure “that still more of our people are able to return home from captivity”. He also said investment was a key issue to be discussed.
The United Arab Emirates has played a key role in overseeing the return home of Ukrainians deported to Russia during the nearly three-year-old war, many of them children.
Elsewhere, White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday said he would travel to Saudi Arabia with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz for talks on how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
A cabinet minister has hit back at an extraordinary rant<\/a> by US vice president JD Vance, in which he attacked European democracies and claimed the greatest threat facing the continent was not Russia or China but “from within”.
Mr Vance stunned delegates at the Munich Security Conference<\/a> on Friday as he accused Europe of \u201cretreating from some of its most fundamental values\u201d, including free speech.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds<\/a> told the BBC he disagreed with Mr Vance\u2019s take on the largest threat facing Europe<\/a>.
\u201cI would disagree on that,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the threat from Russia<\/a> is real.\u201d
Read the full story now:
Conservative leader said she supported those \u2018questioning the status quo\u2019 after fury over comments by Donald Trump\u2019s vice president
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inEuropean leaders are set to join a crisis meeting to face down the threat of Russia From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}