US President Donald Trump seemingly hit out at those criticising the absence of Ukrainian officials from recent talks held between Russia and US on ending the war in Ukraine.
Asked to respond to Ukrainians who may be disappointed that Kyiv officials were not invited to peace talks held in Riyadh on Tuesday, he said: “They’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that.”
Mr Trump add that he was “more confident” about a peace deal after today’s discussions in Saudi Arabia, which were attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Putin’s chief diplomat, Sergey Lavrov.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the US president also said that he would not be against seeing European peacekeeping troops posted to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
He told media: “If they want to do that, that’d be fine.” He added that the US would “not object to that at all”.
Mr Trump then said: “I know France has mentioned it. Others have mentioned it, the UK has mentioned it.” He called the prospect a “beautiful gesture”.
