Justin Trudeau says it’s essential that Ukraine be included in peace negotiations after U.S. and Russian officials met to start discussing a possible end to the war in eastern Europe.
‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,’ the prime minister said
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it’s essential that Ukraine be included in peace negotiations after U.S. and Russian officials met to start discussing a possible end to the war in eastern Europe.
“It’s a fundamental principle for Canada, and for the vast majority of our allies, that nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Trudeau said when asked about the U.S.-Russia talks during a news conference on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov were among the officials that met in the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials were not involved.
The meeting came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he’d spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move that upended existing U.S. policy, shocked European leaders and raised questions about what may come next — including from Ukrainians.
WATCH | Canada ‘unequivocal’ in standing up against Putin on Ukraine, Trudeau says:
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Asked how Canada and its partners should respond to U.S. and Russian talks on Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that nothing about Ukraine should be decided without Ukraine. He also stressed that Canada will stand with Ukraine in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘illegal, immoral, unjust’ violations of the international order.
“Ukrainians have been fighting and dying — not just to protect their sovereignty, their territorial integrity — they’re also fighting to protect the rules-based order that keeps us all safe around the world,” Trudeau said Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to signal his displeasure about being left out of the talks by saying he would postpone a trip to Saudi Arabia that was otherwise supposed to occur on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy has already said that Ukraine will not accept any peace deals “made behind our backs without our involvement.”
Other European leaders have also expressed concerns about being excluded from talks between Russian and U.S. officials. Trudeau is set to join a virtual meeting with the heads of European countries on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine.
Despite Russia’s aggression, Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for the start of the war during a news conference on Tuesday.
“You’ve been there for three years,” Trump said, referring to concerns that Ukraine had been excluded from talks between Russia and the U.S. “You should’ve never started it. You could have made a deal.”
WATCH | Trump blames Ukraine for not ending war with Russia sooner:
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