We will not accept a peace deal without Ukraine’s involvement

Ukraine will not recognise a peace deal negotiated by the US and Russia if it is not involved in the talks, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president insisted he would rebut any deal struck in Saudi Arabia to end the long-running conflict after he was excluded from the negotiating table.

Senior American and Russian officials, including the countries’ top diplomats, will begin negotiating an end to the war on Tuesday in Riyadh, in what is the most significant meeting between the sides since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Before negotiations had even begun, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, ruled out any territorial concessions to Ukraine.

The swiftly arranged meeting between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal without them.

“We cannot recognise any things or agreements about us without us. And we will not recognise such agreements,” Mr Zelensky said.

“Surely, there is a bilateral track there. And the US has the right to do so if they have bilateral issues. To be honest, they talked about it before. Only now have they started talking publicly. Back then, it was like bad manners — to talk to an aggressor during wartime.”

Putin demands Ukraine renounce Nato bid

Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 and renounce its bid to join Nato as part of any prospective peace deal.

Mr Trump, who has not said whether he will continue vital military assistance to Ukraine, has said he wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured”.

Mr Lavrov ruled out any territorial concessions to Ukraine.

“Territorial concessions to what is now called Ukraine were made by the Soviet leadership during the formation of the USSR,” he said before heaping scorn on a Ukrainian bid to do a deal giving the United States access to rare earth minerals.

“How should we give in – with Russian people or with rare earth metals?” Mr Lavrov added.

The talks in Saudi Arabia mark another pivotal step by Mr Trump’s administration to reverse US policy on isolating Russia, and are meant to pave the way for a meeting between the president and Putin.

Elsewhere, Britain became the first European military power to announce that it was prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine.

“The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine. This includes further support for Ukraine’s military – where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030,” Sir Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, wrote in The Telegraph.

“But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary. I do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.”

Ukraine and several EU countries have insisted that without security guarantees, Russia could invade the country again, even if a settlement is reached.

Those guarantees could include Nato membership, which Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, poured cold water on last week.

Ukraine has also expressed hopes of joining the EU, but that is complicated and could take years.