Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and other European capitals from the negotiations on ending the Ukraine war and then called into question the future of US support for Europe’s security altogether.

In this podcast, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker, talks through a seismic week.

Russia hopes that the US will hear Moscow’s position during the talks in Riyadh, the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said today.

Russia’s Interfax news agency was quoting Kirill Dmitriev, a US-educated former Goldman Sachs banker who played a role in early contacts between Moscow and Washington during Trump’s first term as president from 2016-20.

Meanwhile, the start of the talks would have no impact on Moscow’s cooperation with Tehran, the Tass news agency reported on Tuesday, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

He added that Russia was ready to help Iran in solving problems related to its nuclear program.

Today’s Russia-US talks in Riyadh come barely a month after Donald Trump took office and reflect a significant departure from Washington’s position under the administration of Joe Biden, who eschewed public contacts, concluding that Russia was not serious about ending the war, Reuters reports.

Russia, which has occupied parts of Ukraine since 2014, launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Trump has vowed to end the war quickly. Ukraine says no agreements can be made on its behalf in the talks, to which Kyiv was not invited.

US officials sought to cast today’s talks as an initial contact to determine whether Moscow was serious about ending the war in Ukraine.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters in Riyadh:

This is a follow-up on that initial conversation between Putin and President Trump about perhaps if that first step is even possible, what the interests are, if this can be managed.

The Kremlin, however, suggested the discussions would cover “the entire complex of Russian-American relations”, as well as preparing for talks on a possible settlement regarding Ukraine and a meeting between the two presidents.

Here’s the latest Ukraine war briefing ahead of today’s US-Russia talks to discuss ending the conflict.

As Warren Murray and agencies report, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the US was trying to “please” Vladimir Putin as it aimed for a “quick win” by rushing towards a ceasefire. “But what they want – just a ceasefire – is not a win,” the Ukrainian president said in an interview broadcast on Monday. “We [Ukraine] will not sign just anything in order to be applauded … the fate of our state for generations to come [is at stake].”

Zelenskyy also warned that Europe was in a weak position if it could not rely on US security assistance. “There will definitely not be a Ukrainian victory without US support.”

Zelenskyy said he and Donald Trump had spoken about deploying foreign troops to police a future ceasefire. “I told him the Americans should be a part of this, because otherwise we might lose our unity.”

At a meeting of Kyiv’s backers in Brussels last week, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, flatly rejected the possibility of a US troop deployment to Ukraine.

Click here for the full report:

European futures hit record peaks on Tuesday as defence stocks soared on expectations of a spending bump.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% and European futures were up 0.1%, Reuters reports. On Monday the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.5% higher as a gauge of defence and aerospace stocks surged 4.6% to lifetime peaks, having already more than doubled in value since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago.

Investors expect earnings in the industry to continue to rise strongly, driven by a significant surge in defence budgets to meet new security needs – which analysts have dubbed a “supercycle” for the sector.

Hopes for an end to hostilities in Ukraine also improved sentiment in other sectors in Europe.

“A resolution to the conflict in Ukraine could deliver positive growth impulses for Europe, including improved consumer confidence, lower energy prices and easier financial conditions,” said Bruno Schneller, managing director at Erlen Capital Management.

French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday hosted an emergency summit on Ukraine after US officials suggested Europe would have no role in any talks this week in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the conflict. The UK said it was ready to send peacekeeping troops to back up any deal.

Headlines in European newspapers today were dominated by the emergency meeting of leaders in Paris after a week in which the US sidelined Europe and Ukraine from ceasefire negotiations and made it plain the US should not be relied upon for the region’s security, Helen Livingstone reports.

The summit came a day before today’s US-Russia meeting in Riyadh but ended with little unity on crucial points, including the idea of sending a European peacekeeping force to the country.

“Europe in Trump shock”, Germany’s Handelsblatt reported, writing that even as Europeans try to find a common strategy for dealing with Russia and the US, there is “no consensus on key questions”.

In the UK, the Guardian splashed on “Starmer: US ‘backstop’ vital to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine” and reported that European leaders had also called for a “massive boost in defence spending” at the Paris meeting.

For a full rundown on the headlines, click here:

The prospects of the US-Russia talks leading to an agreement to halt the fighting in Ukraine are unclear, Agence France-Presse reports, and the US and Russia have cast the discussions as the beginning of a potentially lengthy process.

“I don’t think that people should view this as something that is about details or moving forward in some kind of a negotiation,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told state media the talks would discuss “how to start negotiations on Ukraine”.

Both Ukraine and Russia have ruled out territorial concessions and Putin last year demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from even more territory.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Turkey on Tuesday to discuss the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and then Saudi Arabia a day later.

He does not plan to hold talks with either the US or Russian delegations, his spokesperson said on Monday.

Zelenskyy said last week he was prepared to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies had a common position on ending the war.

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