Russia-Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy urges ‘fair’ talks after US-Russia meet

For more on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s demands amid Russia-US talks to end the war, see our story here.

Or check out our explainer on what the Trump’s administration Ukraine policy shift means for Europe, here.

We are going to bring our live coverage to an end soon. Here’s a summary of today’s main events:

• Delegations led by the US’s and Russia’s top diplomats have held the most significant meeting between the two countries in years, in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
• The US’s Marco Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov have hailed positive steps, including the launch of an initial process to begin talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, restaffing their respective embassies, and laying the groundwork for a Putin-Trump meeting.
• On a visit to Turkiye, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has again accused the US of sidelining Kyiv and Europe in the talks.
• European lawmakers from across the continent also have called for a pivot away from the US amid the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy shift.
• Fighting has continued in Ukraine, with civilians fleeing the Dnipropetrovsk region as Russian forces advanced.

The French Foreign Ministry has said US top diplomat Marco Rubio spoke with his French, Italian, British, and German counterparts to discuss his meeting today with the Russian delegation.

France’s President Macron also confirmed Rubio had spoken with European diplomats after the meeting in Riyadh.

The US State Department has not released an account of the calls.

A statement from the European People’s Party, Socialists and Democrats, Renew and Greens urges Europe to “double down” on bolstering its defences and supporting Ukraine amid the US-Russia talks in Riyadh.

“Europe can no longer fully rely on the United States to defend our shared values and interests, including continued support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the European lawmakers said.

“We must face this new reality and double down on our joint European effort in defence of Ukraine and European security as a whole by establishing a credible and strong deterrence against any aggression.”

They also called on the EU to enact legislation allowing it to seize more than $210bn (200 billion euros) of Russian assets frozen in the bloc.

In a social media post summarising his visit to the Turkish capital Ankara, the Ukrainian president has said he is “grateful for the warm welcome, hospitality and absolutely constructive approach in our negotiations”.

“We are grateful to Turkiye for all the support to our country and people, for its principled stance on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state,” President Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine greatly values its relations with Türkiye, the mutual understanding we share, and the support we receive in this extraordinary time of war. We are grateful for the warm welcome, hospitality and absolutely constructive approach in our negotiations.

Today, together with… pic.twitter.com/VmiScW6Kys

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 18, 2025

Zelenskyy has postponed his planned visit to Saudi Arabia tomorrow in an effort not to give “legitimacy” to today’s meeting between US and Russian officials in Riyadh, two sources familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

Speaking from Ankara earlier, Zelenskyy had hinted at his reasoning, saying he did not want to give “the wrong impression”.

The trip has been rescheduled for March 10.

Another unnamed Ukrainian official, speaking to the AFP news agency, accused the Trump administration of “feeding Putin’s appetite” by holding the meeting without European or Ukrainian leaders.

Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide who was among the officials who met a US delegation in Riyadh today, has said neither Washington nor Moscow has appointed their special envoys for continued talks on ending the Ukraine war.

Ushakov said that on the US side, retired General Keith Kellogg would deal with Ukraine and Europe, but someone else would handle contacts with Russia.

“They have already appointed an envoy, a special envoy for Ukraine, Mr Kellogg, but he will lead contacts with Ukrainians and Europeans,” Ushakov said, according to Russian state media.

“For our Russian-American track, a special person or a group of special representatives will be allocated,” he added.

As we’ve been reporting, a Ukrainian drone attack on a pumping station in southern Russia has damaged the volume of oil passing through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in televised remarks that the attack had damaged “energy equipment, a gas turbine unit, and a substation”.

“And as a result of the activation of the backup pumping circuit, bypassing the Kropotkin pumping station, we see a decrease in pumping volumes by approximately 30-40 percent compared to the level before the drone attack,” Novak said.

The Russian president has promised 65,000 rubles ($709) per month to residents of the Kursk region who have lost property in Ukraine’s offensive.

Ukrainian troops seized large portions of Kursk beginning in August, in their first major incursion into Russian territory.

Russia has since made gains in retaking the territory, but have failed to retake the area surrounding the town of Sudzha.

Ukrainian officials have maintained that continued control of portions of Kursk will be a fundamental point of leverage in any future peace talks.

Echoing the position of Group of 7 (G7) countries, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has said Ukraine needs “robust” security guarantees as part of any deal to end the war.

“Canada’s position is that Ukraine must be at the table,” Joly said in French during a virtual briefing with reporters.

“We know very well that [Russian] President Putin has no red lines and that after Ukraine, it can certainly be an attack against NATO territory,” she said.

She added that it is important for Canada, the US and Europe to offer security guarantees to Ukraine.

“We wouldn’t want to be in a situation where essentially there’s a ceasefire, there’s a non-durable peace, and Russian forces leave Ukrainian territory, reorganise themselves, and re-invade Ukraine. We would find ourselves in an even more dangerous situation than today,” Joly said.

How are Ukrainians reacting to the Trump administration’s push for talks with Russia to end the war in their country? Find out in our video below.

The meeting comes a day after the Saudi crown prince met US Secretary of State Rubio.

MBS and Russia’s Lavrov discussed ways to develop their “friendly” bilateral relations, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Speaking to reporters, Lavrov said the meeting lasted for nearly an hour.

The crude oil giants have had fraught relations at times, but have become closer in recent years.

Moscow invited the Gulf kingdom to join the BRICS group of countries in 2023, but Riyadh has not accepted the offer.

Speaking at a UN Security Council session on international peace and security, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing “has advocated political settlement and promoted peace talks” since the war began in Ukraine.

“China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks,” Wang said.

He added that China would continue to work with countries, particularly those in the Global South, “to make more objective, balanced and rational voices heard; to build consensus for ending the conflict, and to pave the way for peace”.

Mariia Mezentseva, the head of Ukraine’s delegation to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, says the entire country stands behind Zelenskyy amid the recent developments.

“It’s not yet very clear how this negotiating table will look,” Mezentseva told Al Jazeera.

But she stressed that “defence and justice” must be at the forefront of any solution to end the war, and the US, Europe and Ukraine must be on board.

“It’s not Russia who can dictate the rules because they are the invaders. It has to be absolutely [reversed].”

Andrzej Duda says he was informed by Trump’s Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg that there would be no reduction in troops in Eastern Europe.

The statement from the Polish president comes as the Trump administration in the US has upped its pressure on European countries to increase their defence commitments.

Speaking last week, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ruled out US troops participating in any future peacekeeping missions in Ukraine.

About 100,000 US troops were stationed in Europe in 2024, including about 20,000 deployed to Eastern Europe – mostly Poland and Romania –  in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We spoke to a member of Zelenskyy’s party, the chief of this country’s foreign affairs committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, earlier today, and we asked for his reaction about what he thought was going to be achieved in Riyadh.

He really did not mince his words in any way. He said, “absolutely nothing”.

He said the reason for that is because Ukraine and Russia’s goals are completely irreconcilable and they are diametrically opposed in their positions. He said that the West and Ukraine’s backers would be foolish to listen and to trust Putin in this negotiating process.

He went on to say that it was purely rhetoric by Trump, that he didn’t really trust this move by the new man in the White House, but he understood the motivations for it.

He said that Trump was playing to his electorate after all these promises that he made in his campaign. But again, he said that he saw no real hope in any lasting solution.