Putin praises Trump and Russia-US talks and says Ukraine will not be excluded from negotiations

Vladimir Putin has praised the outcome of talks between Russia and the United States, and assured Ukraine would not be left out of negotiations to end the war.

Ukrainian and European governments were left out of the four-and-a-half hour meetings, held on Tuesday (18 February) in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

However, Putin insisted Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky was not being sidelined from peace discussions, telling press: “The US assume both Russia and Ukraine will take part in the negotiating process.”

The Russian president also revealed he was looking forward to continuing discussions with President Trump directly, saying: “It will be a pleasure to meet Donald... during the four years he was president [we] had very straight discussions on our bilateral relations.”