President Donald Trump of the United States has raised concerns about the significant amount of money America has spent in Ukraine.
He questioned where the funds sent to Ukraine have been allocated and criticized the country’s leadership for initiating and prolonging a war.
Following the meeting, US and Russian officials announced plans to explore economic and investment opportunities to resolve the conflict.
Despite Ukraine’s concerns about being excluded from the discussions, the country insisted it would not accept any agreements made without its participation.
Zelensky and European leaders are worried that Trump could push for a peace settlement that favours Vladimir Putin.
“Today I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited’. Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years [ago] – you should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said in response to concerns regarding the absence of European leaders and Zelensky in the meeting.
Speaking further, the US leader pointed out that he had seen no accounting of how his country’s military aid to Ukraine is being spent.
“I think I have the power to end this war,” he said.
European leaders are not concerned and are looking at the best possible way to beef up security in their continent, believing that whatever agreement comes out of the Riyadh meeting won’t be in their or Ukraine’s favour.
After the talks at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said agreement had been made to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks and to explore “opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine”.
