President Trump describes US-Russia talks as 'very good'

According to RIA Novosti, US President Donald Trump described the negotiations between the Russian and US delegations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as "very good" and criticized Ukraine's stance.

“The talks are going very well. Russia wants to do something,” President Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on February 18.

The US leader added that he was "much more confident" that a deal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine was possible.

The White House chief criticized the Kiev government for not taking advantage of the opportunity to resolve the conflict with Russia over the past three years. Mr. Trump also expressed frustration that the conflict could not be resolved without causing territorial losses for Ukraine.

“It was possible to make a deal that would have preserved virtually all of Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said.

The US president believes that Russia has the ability to "very quickly" destroy 100% of Ukrainian cities, including Kiev, but Moscow has not wanted to do so.

In addition, President Trump supported the need to hold elections in Ukraine, pointing to the low level of support for Mr. Zelensky in the country.

"I want to say that when Ukraine wants a seat at the negotiating table, but for a long time, there have been no elections in Kiev and Zelensky's approval rating has dropped to 4%," President Trump noted. At the same time, he pointed out that the issue of holding elections in Ukraine is not a request of Russia but a concern of many countries.

Mr Trump complained that Washington had allocated more money to Kiev than its European allies and stressed the need for a fair distribution of financial obligations.

"We have to balance the contributions because Europe has contributed about 100 billion, and we have contributed more than 300 billion" - President Trump proposed, at the same time, he expressed concern about the lack of transparent reporting on the use of funds allocated to Ukraine.

On February 18, negotiations between the Russian and US delegations took place in Riyadh; lasting 4.5 hours. The two sides discussed bilateral relations, resolving the situation in Ukraine and preparing for the meeting between the two countries' leaders.

The Russian side was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, while the US side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy for the Middle East Stephen Witkoff.

Amid the Russia-US talks in Riyadh, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had canceled his visit to Saudi Arabia, which was scheduled for today (February 19). According to the Ukrainian leader, he does not want anything to be decided behind his back. Mr. Zelensky noted that Ukraine was not invited to the meeting of the Russian and US delegations and that it was a surprise for Kiev.