Zelensky reiterates Ukraine’s determination never to accept Kremlin ultimatums

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reiterated his earlier pledge that Kyiv would never accept Russian ultimatums, news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Tuesday, as the first round of high-level talks between Russia and the US came to an end in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine’s participation.

Zelensky said that Russia had delivered an ultimatum to Ukraine at the beginning of the war, demanding a reduction in the number of Ukrainian troops, recognition of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory as part of Russia, and his resignation in favour of a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv.

“It feels like the negotiations taking place now are in the same vein, but this time they are between Russia and the United States, about Ukraine — again, this is about Ukraine — but without Ukraine’s involvement. … If we didn’t accept all these ultimatums at that most difficult of times, why would anyone think that Ukraine would accept them now?” Zelensky said during a press conference while on a trip to Ankara, where he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Zelensky said that there had been “no agreement with the Russians during their occupation of the Kyiv region, no agreement when we met in Belarus, and no agreement when we met in Türkiye. … I have never intended to heed Russian ultimatums, and nor do I now.”

Following the Tuesday meetings in Riyadh, one of the Russian negotiators, Yury Ushakov, said that new teams of negotiators charged with negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine would make contact with each other as soon as they were appointed.

Zelensky also announced that he had postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia, expected in the coming days, until 10 March, according to news outlet RBC Ukraine.