Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls off expected visit to Saudi Arabia

Peace talks must not happen ‘behind the scenes’, Ukraine's President says after US-Russia meeting in Riyadh

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their joint press conference in Ankara. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would not make an expected trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, in apparent frustration at US and Russian officials who met in Riyadh on Tuesday for extensive talks without the participation of Ukraine.

"We are honest and we are open for peace talks, but I have taken the decision of not visiting Saudi Arabia, and I don't want to indeed create such a false image in the media," the Ukrainian leader told a joint press conference with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after talks in Ankara. Mr Zelenskyy had been expected to visit Saudi Arabia following his meetings in Turkey and talks in the UAE on Monday.

Ukraine told Saudi Arabia of its plans to abort the trip, and that officials from the country would instead visit the Gulf nation on March 10, Mr Zelenskyy said. The change of plan appears to be a response to in-depth talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Riyadh to which, Mr Zelenskyy said, Ukraine was not invited.

"We were not invited to that meeting, and it was a meeting between Russia and the United States of America in Saudi Arabia, this was a surprise for us," Mr Zelenskyy said. "We learnt this news from the media."

The visit to Turkey comes after the Ukrainian President held talks in Abu Dhabi with President Sheikh Mohamed on Monday. The Russia-US talks focused on conditions to end the conflict that began with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Negotiations and diplomatic efforts to end the war "would yield positive results", Mr Zelenskyy said, but maintained that his country would never cede control of land to Moscow. "Ukraine will never recognise the territories invaded by Russia as Russian land," he said. Ukraine was fully committed to peace talks, he said, but they should not happen "behind the scenes".

The conversation with the US officials in Riyadh was, "very useful and very valuable", Mr Lavrov said in a press conference following the meeting. "I have all reasons to believe that the American party now has a better understanding of our position."

Mr Erdogan offered up Turkey as a host country for potential future peace talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine – a nod to the diplomatic mediator role that Ankara has attempted to carve for itself in the continuing war. "For the possible meetings to be held between Russia, Ukraine and America in the upcoming period, our country will be an ideal host," Mr Erdogan told the joint press conference. "This war, which caused the deaths of many innocents and enormous destruction, must now end."

Turkey has provided its domestically produced military drones to Kyiv, while also remaining reliant on Russian oil and gas imports for a significant share of its energy supplies, and boosting economic ties with Russia. Early in the Ukraine war, Turkey and the UN brokered a major deal under which shipments of grain safely navigated the Black Sea despite the conflict, although Russia declined to renew the initial agreement when it expired in July 2023.

Prisoner exchanges have been a key topic at Mr Zelenskyy’s talks with regional leaders so far. He said the UAE's mediation had “saved many lives”.

This month, the UAE mediated an exchange of prisoners, resulting in the release of 150 Russians and 150 Ukrainians, the state news agency Wam reported. This brings the total number of prisoners exchanged between the two countries to 2,883. "If Putin wants to put an end to this war sincerely, first of all, the exchange of prisoners should be carried out," Mr Zelenskyy said in Ankara.

Talks also focused on Ukrainian children whose parents were killed or went missing in the war, and who are now under Turkish guardianship. The country's Ministry of Family and Social Services said in 2022 that there were 1,380 Ukrainian orphans and unaccompanied children being cared for in Turkey, although the current number is not clear. Mr Zelenskyy suggested that efforts for their protection were being led in initiatives by Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska and her Turkish counterpart Emine Erdogan.

The Ukrainian President praised his counterparts during the visits in the UAE and Turkey, reserving criticism for the US and European partners, from whom he said he expected a "guarantorship" and greater support for his country's aims to join the military alliance Nato. Their inertia was – possibly inadvertently – support for Russian foreign policy, he said.

"The European Union, or the USA, for example, could have provided this hope for Ukraine for guarantorship," Mr Zelenskyy said. "We know that USA and some of their European counterparts are not advocating for Ukraine's Nato membership, and this means that they are in alignment with the Russian expectations and Russian foreign policy desires."

Mr Erdogan and Mr Zelenskyy held a meeting at the presidential complex in Ankara before a working dinner between delegations and the press conference, according to a schedule released earlier on Wednesday by the Turkish presidency. The countries also agreed to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion. Turkish companies are "willing to extend their hand" for post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine, Mr Erdogan added.

Mr Zelenskyy attended the opening of the new Ukrainian embassy building in Ankara, and visited the tomb of the founder of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.