Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not recognise any peace agreements made without its participation, as top Russian and US officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia for high-stakes talks on the war in Ukraine.

“Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result, and we cannot recognise any agreements about us without us,” Zelenskyy said on Monday. His comments came as Russian and American officials travelled to Riyadh ahead of Tuesday’s talks aimed at ending Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine, with Kyiv and Europe excluded from the negotiations.

Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine will not take part in the talks. “Ukraine did not know anything about it,” he said.

The swift push to organise the critical US-Russia talks came after last week’s call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, where the two leaders discussed launching negotiations on the war.

The meeting in Riyadh will mark the first in-person discussions between top officials from both countries in years, after a sharp downturn in relations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both sides are dispatching high-level delegations, underscoring the importance they place on the talks, which could lay the groundwork for a Trump-Putin summit as early as this month.

The US delegation will feature some of Trump’s most senior aides, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, who arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as well as Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and White House national security adviser Mike Waltz.

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Meanwhile, Moscow announced that Putin had tasked his most senior foreign policy envoy, Yuri Ushakov, along with longtime foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, to travel to Saudi Arabia.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the meeting “will be devoted to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement and the organisation of a meeting between the two presidents.”

In comments cited by TASS on Monday morning, Lavrov said that Russia had no intention of making territorial concessions to Ukraine during the peace talks.

In September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including areas that remain outside its control.

Lavrov added that Moscow would hear out “its US colleagues,” but that Europe “has no place at the negotiating table.”

Zelenskyy said in a video briefing from the United Arab Emirates on Monday, where he was on a state visit, that he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, though he stressed his visit was not linked to the Russian-US peace talks.

“So, once again, my visits have nothing in common with those talks. Although when I arrive in Saudi Arabia I will ask his majesty what he knows about the topics of the talks,” Zelenskyy added.

On Sunday, Trump stated that Zelenskyy would take part in the discussions but did not specify at what stage or whether Ukrainian officials would be present in Riyadh.

Also present in Riyadh for Russia will be Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a US-sanctioned financier – reportedly a close friend of Putin’s daughter – who is expected to serve as an “unofficial back-channel” liaison with Trump’s team.

“A heavyweight Russia delegation is departing for Riyadh. All are loyal and trusted insiders,” the liberal commentator Alexei Venediktov wrote on his telegram channel.

Riyadh has played a central role in early contacts between the Trump administration and Moscow, helping to secure a prisoner swap last week.

Peskov said that the location was chosen because it suited both countries.

The blistering speed of talks has added to further anxieties in Europe, which has been left out of the talks.

During the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told European officials that while Europe would be consulted, it would ultimately be excluded from the negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the US.

Responding to the fast-moving negotiations taking place without them, French president Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting in Paris with European leaders.

“We feel like we’re constantly left in the dark,” a senior European official told the Guardian, commenting on this week’s talks.

“At the moment, we’re running behind the news. Our goal now is to show what we can bring to the table,” the official added.

Despite the flurry of diplomacy, little is known about Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine or Russia’s willingness to engage.

The US has repeatedly said that it wants European peacekeeping troops to enter Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal – an idea under discussion among European leaders.

Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, on Sunday said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia.

While Russia has repeatedly rejected the possibility of European forces in Ukraine, Moscow appeared to tone down its rhetoric on Monday, with the Kremlin spokesperson Peskov calling it a “complex issue.”