Ukraine’s future at stake as U.S., Russia, Europe hold separate talks

Ukraine was not involved in either high-level meeting on its future and a possible end to the war, and it remains unclear when all sides will be at the same table in the future.

A peaceful and lasting end to the war in Ukraine is finally being discussed — but not all parties are at the same table.

U.S. and Russian officials on Tuesday held their first talks since the war began nearly three years ago, with an opening round of bilateral negotiations in Saudi Arabia. The meeting came hours after European leaders convened in Paris to discuss shoring up their own security, as well as Ukraine’s.

None of the meetings included representatives from Kyiv, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says is absolutely necessary.

Canada will participate in another round of European talks on Wednesday.

The separate talks underscore the complexity of ending the deadliest European conflict since the Second World War, analysts say. While the new Trump administration is focused on securing a peace deal quickly, Ukraine’s EU allies want to ensure the U.S. doesn’t embolden Russia or leave a security vacuum on the continent.

“What the Americans don’t want to do is have a long, drawn-out peace process where there’s multiple stakeholders at the table, multiple drafting options, and this thing goes on forever,” said Andrew Rasiulis, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a former defence official. “The Europeans, of course, are pushing hard against that now.

“So these are two parallel tracks, and at some point they’ll intersect. The question is how.”

Tuesday’s meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh effectively ended the strategy of isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war he began in 2022.