Kyiv has not been invited to talks between the US and Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian government source has told the BBC.
The US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg had said Kyiv would be involved in Monday’s talks in Saudi Arabia, but the source said no delegation would be present.
European leaders have also not been asked to join the discussions, and are due to meet instead on Monday in Paris at a summit hastily arranged by the French president, as fears grow the continent is being locked out of negotiations.
The separate meetings follow a turbulent week where Washington has signalled a drastic change in its approach to the war in Ukraine.
The White House’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed he was travelling to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening for the first face-to-face talks between the US and Russia towards ending the conflict.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz are also set to meet Russian negotiators there, less than a week after US President Donald Trump held a phone call with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin. The call on Wednesday brought to an end a three-year freeze on direct contact between Moscow and Washington.
Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out accepting a peace deal negotiated without Ukraine, telling US television network NBC on Sunday that he would “never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never”.
Witkoff said US officials were speaking separately with Ukrainian officials and that it was “part of the talks” – but did not indicate whether he expected Kyiv to be present in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Rubio downplayed the Saudi Arabia talks, saying one meeting would not solve the war and that a formal negotiating process – that would mediate between Ukraine, Russia and third parties – had not yet been set up.
He told CBS News, however, that the next few days would determine if Putin was serious about achieving peace.
It is against this backdrop that a group of European leaders – including the UK’s Keir Starmer, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz and the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen – will meet in Paris.
A statement received by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, confirmed French President Emmanuel Macron would hold an informal meeting in the afternoon on Ukraine and European security.
However, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the summit should not be “over-dramatised”.
US Ukraine envoy Kellog had earlier dismissed concerns over Europe not being invited to Saudi Arabia, arguing previous negotiations had failed due to the involvement of too many parties.
“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he said on Saturday.
The meetings mark an acceleration in Trump’s efforts to achieve a swift end to the war.
The White House said the US president had held a “lengthy” phone-call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, after which Trump said negotiations to stop the “ridiculous war” in Ukraine would begin immediately.
He also said it was not “practical” for Ukraine to join Nato and “unlikely” it could return to its 2014 pre-invasion borders.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal.
Trump’s stance has also been echoed by his defence secretary, fuelling European alarm that the US may be making concessions to Russia before any peace deal was negotiated.
Pete Hegseth also said European nations must provide the “overwhelming” share of funding for Ukraine – claiming the US would no longer “tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.
US Vice-President JD Vance likewise told the Munich Security Conference on Friday that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”, in his speech largely spent criticising European democracies.
Zelensky called on Saturday for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer count on Washington.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continued on Sunday – with Zelensky saying a Russian attack had left at least 100,000 people without power in Mykolaiv.
He said homes were without heating following a drone strike on the city’s “critical infrastructure”.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, having already seized Crimea and part of the eastern Donbas region in 2014.