Trump: US delegation to meet Russian officials in Munich, Ukraine invited

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that a U.S. delegation will meet with Russian representatives this Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany to discuss Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also stated that Ukrainian representatives have been invited, but the Ukrainian government has no plans to meet with Moscow.

“Talks with Russians in Munich are not expected,” said Ukrainian communications adviser Dmytro Litvin.

Trump’s announcement came a day after he revealed that he had spoken with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to begin talks to end the war “immediately.”

“They are going to have a meeting in Munich tomorrow [Friday]. Russia will be there with our people. Ukraine is also invited, by the way. I’m not sure who exactly is going to be there from each country, but there will be high-level people from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.” Trump told reporters.

He also announced that these discussions will be followed by a second round of talks next week in Saudi Arabia, involving senior officials from multiple countries. Trump made this statement at the start of a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I think we went a long way toward getting a solution to the horrible war,” the U.S. president stressed in his remarks, as the Indian prime minister looked on.

Washington’s delegation to the Munich Security Conference in Germany is led by Vice President J.D. Vance, who will be accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the U.S. envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg. Zelenskiy is also attending the conference on behalf of his country, and has a scheduled meeting with Vance.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian government officials have reiterated that Zelenskiy has no intention of meeting with Russian representatives during his stay in Germany. Amid Washington’s urgency to push for talks, Litvin sought to temper expectations, emphasizing that Europe and Ukraine must establish a unified stance before engaging with Moscow.

Zelenskiy has insisted that any resolution to the war must be discussed with Kyiv: ”We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us."

On Thursday, Rubio held a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha. According to a statement from Rubio’s department, they discussed “the need for bold diplomacy to end the war in a negotiated manner leading to a sustainable peace.”

Rubio also reaffirmed “U.S. commitment to Ukrainian independence and the stability of Ukraine and the region.” This statement was intended to reassure European partners, who are concerned that negotiations to end the conflict might sideline them and result in an agreement favorable to Russia but detrimental to Kyiv.

Those fears were heightened after Hegseth stated in Brussels on Wednesday that it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to regain its pre-2014 borders, when Russia annexed Crimea. He also ruled out Ukraine’s NATO membership as a topic for negotiation. However, on Thursday, he softened his stance, clarifying that “everything is on the table.”

At a press conference following his meeting with Modi, Trump said he did not yet know how the negotiations he aims to initiate would unfold. “It’s too early to say,” he said. “Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won’t [...] The negotiation really hasn’t started.” However, he suggested that there was one issue on which Moscow would not budge: it would categorically reject Ukraine’s NATO membership — Kyiv’s key aspiration and an issue Russia considers non-negotiable.

“[Former U.S. president Joe] Biden went out and said they could join NATO. And he shouldn’t have said that. As soon as he said that, I said, ‘You know what? You’re going to have a war now,‘” said Trump.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday while signing a memorandum on imposing reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. president said that he believes Putin when he says he wants peace. He also assured that when ceasefire talks begin, Ukraine will “of course” have a seat at the table. “They’re part of it,” he stressed. “We’ll have other people involved,” he added, in an apparent reference to European countries.

Trump also defended his decision to call Putin first when launching negotiations on Wednesday, rather than Zelenskiy. “We have to find out whether or not Russia wants to make a deal. I know that Zelenskiy wants to make a deal because he told me that,” said the president.

The Republican also expressed regret that Moscow had been expelled from the G7 following its annexation of Crimea, calling it “a mistake.” He suggested that had Russia remained in the group of leading economies, the war in Ukraine might have been avoided.

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