Trump administration says it speaks to Ukraine and Europe daily

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has denied claims that the US is communicating with Russia behind the backs of Ukraine and the European Union.

Waltz emphasised at a press conference after a meeting with the Russian delegation in Riyadh the benefits of "shuttle diplomacy", which has happened everywhere throughout history, and recalled that Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy just a few minutes after his call to Vladimir Putin.

"If you’re going to bring both sides together, you have to talk to both sides," he said.

Waltz recalled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance had recently met with Zelenskyy, while at the same time seven members of the US administration in Europe had shown how important engaging with allies is for Trump.

Waltz said President Trump had spoken to President Emmanuel Macron the day before and that Prime Minister Keir Starmer is coming to Washington the following week.

"We will continue to push back on this notion that our allies haven’t been consulted: they are being consulted, literally almost on a daily basis, and we’ll continue to do so," he said.

Macron convened an emergency meeting in Paris after Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, said that the United States does not see Europe at the negotiating table to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.

On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Kellogg. During the conversation, von der Leyen emphasised, among other things, that Europe's contribution to supporting Ukraine cannot be considered less than the US’s.