Trump promises Kyiv involvement in peace talks with Russia

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia, although Kyiv said it would be premature to speak with Moscow at a security conference on Friday.

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.

"They're part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we'll have other people involved, a lot of people,” Trump said.

Asked whether he trusts Putin, he said: "I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject."

Trump said US and Russian officials would meet in Munich on Friday and that Ukraine was also invited.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, however, said Kyiv does not expect to hold talks with the Russian side at the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday, and believes the US, Europe and Ukraine need a common position before talks with Moscow.

Trump also suggested to reporters there would be a meeting of top officials, although not leaders, from all three countries in Saudi Arabia next week aimed at ending the war.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed "the need for bold diplomacy" to end the war in a call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the State Department said.

Russia's financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine's debt rose at the prospect of the first talks in years to end Europe's deadliest war since World War Two.

Trump's unilateral overture to Putin on Wednesday, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine's principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in NATO who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.

"We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine would "of course" participate in peace talks in some way, but there would also be a bilateral negotiation track between the United States and Russia, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public towards Trump's peace overture to Putin, saying any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.

"Any quick fix is a dirty deal," European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She also denounced the apparent concessions offered in advance.

A European diplomatic source said ministers had agreed to engage in a "frank and demanding dialogue" with US officials - some of the strongest language in the diplomatic lexicon - at the Munich conference beginning on Friday.

On Wednesday, Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion, and then followed it up with a call to Zelenskiy. Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.

The Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the NATO alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.

But on Thursday, a senior US official said the United States had not ruled out potential NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to pre-2014 borders, contradicting the earlier comments.