Ukraine will be excluded from peace talks held in Saudi Arabia today.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are both members of the delegation, which constitutes the first significant engagement between the senior levels of the two Governments in many years.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said there can be no peace deal for Ukraine without Ukraine - but the Americans say this is just the opening salvo to suss out how serious Russia is about peace.
For its part, Moscow has said there can be no relinquishing of land back to Ukraine and that the EU cannot be a part of the talks.
A mall damaged by a Russian missile attack in Dnipro, Ukraine. Picture by: Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP.Here at home, Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris will tell the Cabinet he plans to approve €50 million in non-lethal aid to Ukraine with a memo to go to Government early next month.
The funding would be outside the EU's European Peace Facility as member states struggle to overcome a Hungarian veto.
Before Cabinet, Minister Harris will attend a virtual meeting of European People's Party leaders which will be briefed on the latest in Ukraine by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Main image: Ukrainian soldiers. Picture by: Alamy.com.
