Ankara (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday criticised US-Russia talks for excluding Kyiv, saying efforts to end the war must be "fair" and involve European countries including Turkey.
The Ukrainian leader spoke after a nearly three-hour meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish capital Ankara.
"Ukraine, Europe in a broad sense -- and this includes the European Union, Turkey, and the UK -- should be involved in conversations and the development of the necessary security guarantees with America regarding the fate of our part of the world," Zelensky said.
Any efforts to broker an end to the conflict should be "fair", he said, slamming the US-Russia talks in Riyadh earlier on Tuesday and reiterating his opposition to "decisions without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine".
He said he had not been invited to the Riyadh talks and was postponing his own trip to the Saudi capital, where he had been expected on Wednesday, pushing the date back to March 10.
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Standing beside Zelensky, Erdogan offered Turkey as the "ideal host" for any talks on ending the conflict, recalling how the sides had met in Istanbul back in 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded.
"Turkey will be an ideal host for the possible talks between Russia, Ukraine and America in the near future," he added, saying the Istanbul talks had been "an important reference point and the platform where the parties came closest to an agreement".
It was Zelensky's third visit to Turkey since the Russian invasion, with the Ukrainian leader seeking to shore up Kyiv's position following US President Donald Trump's outreach towards Moscow.
NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbours, with Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Turkey has played a role in brokering several prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine.
Those deals have seen hundreds of prisoners returning home despite the ongoing conflict.
The geopolitical theater of "fair" negotiations continues, with Zelensky rightly calling out the farce of exclusionary talks. When did diplomatic chess become a spectator sport for the invaded? Erdogan’s offer to host is less about peace and more about polishing Turkey’s authoritarian veneer—another mediator cosplaying as neutral while juggling drone deals and Kremlin handshakes.
Trump’s team reshuffling global priorities like a clown car of realpolitik shouldn’t surprise anyone. Washington’s pivot to Riyadh-backed backrooms reeks of legacy empires carving spheres while Ukraine bleeds. Proxy wars don’t end with handshakes—they end when the last pawn realizes the board was rigged from the start.