ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia, where he was due on Wednesday, after the United States (US) and Russia held their first high-level talks on ending the Ukraine war.

During a press conference in Turkey on Tuesday, Zelensky slammed the meeting — to which he said he was not invited — and said he had decided to postpone his official visit to the Middle Eastern country until 10 March.

United States (US) President Donald Trump, meanwhile, reacted by telling reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, “Today I heard, ‘oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Asked whether the US would support demands that Russia wanted to force Zelensky to hold new elections as part of any peace deal, Trump began by criticizing what he said were the Ukrainian’s approval ratings.

“They want a seat at the table, but you could say... wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election.”

Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, but has remained in office as Ukraine is still under martial law.

As to European leaders’ increasing fear that Trump is giving too many concessions to Russia in his pursuit of the Ukraine deal that he promised to seal even before taking office, the American leader insisted that his only goal was “peace” to end the largest land war in Europe since World War II.