Praise US-Russia Negotiations, Putin: No Except Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin/PHOTO via Instagram @russian_kremlin

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin praised the results of the Russia-US negotiations in Saudi Arabia. Putin said Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war.

"Without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States, it is unlikely to solve many problems, including the Ukraine crisis," Putin said in his first comments regarding Tuesday's meeting in Riyadh.

The purpose of this meeting was to increase trust between Russia and the United States.

The governments of Ukraine and European countries were not invited to negotiations in the Saudi capital, raising their concerns that Russia and the United States may be making deals that ignore their vital interests.

But Putin said Russia had never rejected talks with European or Kyiv countries, and they were the ones who refused to talk to Moscow.

"We are not forcing anything on anyone. We are ready, I have said this hundreds of times - if they want, please let these negotiations be carried out. And we will be ready to return to the negotiating table," he said.

"No one excludes Ukraine," continued Putin, saying there was no need for a "hysterical" reaction to the US-Russian negotiations.