Summary
A senior White House team, led by Steve Witkoff and Mike Waltz, is traveling to Saudi Arabia to set up Ukraine peace talks, excluding both Ukraine and Europe from negotiations.
This move raises concerns about sidelining key stakeholders while favoring direct U.S.-Russia discussions. European leaders, including Macron and Starmer, are meeting in Paris to respond.
Trump’s team has hinted at lifting Russian sanctions, a stance welcomed by the Kremlin.
NATO allies are wary of U.S. inquiries on security guarantees for Ukraine, fearing strategic leaks.
The main thing I got from this is that Saudi Arabia doesn’t respect an international arrest warrant on Putin.
Trump and Putin can talk all they want, without Ukraine it means nothing.
Saudi Arabia isn’t an ICC member state, though, so they don’t have to comply with the warrant (probably part of why they picked Saudi Arabia).
If they want Europe to enforce the peace in Ukraine, a ‘deal’ without Europe is meaningless as well (you’d hope, anyway. Otherwise the European establishment would agree with America treating Europe like their bitch).