The US President stated on February 19 via social media that Ukrainian President Zelensky "had better act quickly, or his country will cease to exist".
Russian President Putin said on the 19th that he was very willing to meet with the US President, but preparations must be made before the meeting.
According to reports, Putin visited a drone manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg that day and positively evaluated the Russia-US talks held in Saudi Arabia on the 18th. When answering questions, he said that the purpose of this talk was to restore Russia-US trust, and the two countries had taken the first step in resuming work in areas of common concern.
Putin said that Russia was willing to sit at the negotiation table to discuss the Ukraine issue. The stance of the US side informed by the US President in a previous call was that the negotiation would be carried out with the participation of both Russia and Ukraine, and "no one was excluding Ukraine from this process". Europe did not need to react negatively to the Russia-US talks either.
The Russian and US delegations held talks in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on the 18th and reached a consensus on resuming the normal operation of each other's diplomatic missions and ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The US President said later that day that he "might" meet with Putin before the end of February.
On February 19 local time, Ukrainian President Zelensky announced on his official social media that he had a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Rutte to discuss the role of Turkey in providing security guarantees. In addition, Rutte informed Zelensky of the situation of his meeting with the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia issues, Keith Kellogg, during the call.
The two sides also discussed future contacts with partners and coordinated further measures. Zelensky said that before any negotiation, all partners should clearly recognize that providing strong security guarantees for Ukraine was a top priority for achieving lasting peace.