Negotiating talks between Donald Trump and the Russian President.

Trump and Russian President Engage in Negotiation Talks

Written by: Supriya Kadu

Edited by: Pinky Deshmukh

Last Updated: February 19, 2025

Summary: ‘Russia ready to end barbarianism’ says Donald Trump on talks of Russia-Ukraine war.

As the US and Russia started talks on ending the war, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Russia wanted to stop the "barbarianism" occurring in its battle with Ukraine.

Trump while addressing the white house said, “Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the barbarianism that's going on over there. Soldiers are being killed by thousands weekly. Apart from Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, a lot of Koreans have been killed. We want to end it.”

“It's a senseless war. It should have never happened; it would have never happened if I were President.”

On Tuesday, the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh hosted the start of negotiations to settle the three-year conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are keen to "appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible."

But Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Russia and the United States for keeping his nation out of the negotiations.

According to Trump, Ukraine could have reached an agreement with him sooner if they had so desired and should never have initiated the conflict.

His comments followed the US and Russia's involvement in negotiations in Riyadh to end the war in Ukraine, which is approaching its third year, following Russia's 2022 invasion of the neighboring nation. The discussions on Tuesday did not include Ukraine.

In response to Ukraine's absence from the negotiations, Zelenskyy declared that his nation would not recognize any resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, reported The Associated Press.

In response to this Trump said, "Today I heard, 'oh, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."

Statements by Trump