Donald Trump has hit back at Volodymyr Zelensky over his objection to Ukraine being left out of talks on ending the war with Russia, saying he ‘could have made a deal’ three years ago.

The US President said leaders in Kyiv should not have allowed the conflict begin, suggesting they should have been willing to make concessions before Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in 2022.

Speaking to reporters in Palm Beach, Trump said: ‘Today I heard, “Oh, well, we weren’t invited”. Well, you been there for three years. You should have ended it three years ago.

‘You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.’

Trump said he was feeling more confident after the talks in Saudi Arabia and would probably meet Putin later this month.

‘Russia wants to do something,’ he said, adding Kyiv should have entered talks much earlier.

‘I think I have the power to end this war.’

The talks in Riyadh were the first time US and Russian officials met to discuss ways to halt the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

Ukraine has said it will not accept any deal imposed without its consent, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated ‘there must be no decision over the heads of Ukraine’.

During former President Joe Biden’s administration, the US and Europe focused on isolating Russia and defending the post-World War II international order.

But even before the talks took place this week, some European politicians accused Trump’s administration of handing free concessions to Moscow by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and saying it was an illusion for Kyiv to believe it could win back the 20% of its territory now under Russian control.

High-level teams would begin talks on ending the conflict and would separately work to restore the countries’ respective diplomatic missions in Washington and Moscow to ease the talks going forward, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Rubio said he came away from the initial talks convinced that Russia was ‘willing to begin to engage in a serious process’ but that reaching peace would involve concessions from all sides.

‘No one is being sidelined here,’ Rubio said of the absence of representatives from Ukraine and Europe at the summit.

‘Obviously, there’s going to be engagement and consultation with Ukraine, with our partners in Europe and others. But ultimately, the Russian side will be indispensable to this effort.’

Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz pointed out that Trump spoke with Zelensky immediately after speaking with Putin last week and that US Vice President JD Vance and Rubio met Friday with Zelensky in Germany.

Still, the Ukrainian president was irritated at being omitted from the meeting, postponing plans to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to avoid any linkage of his trip with Tuesday’s US-Russia talks.

Commenting on the talks, Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Eurasia and Russia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a former British ambassador to Belarus, said: ‘This whole negotiation from the start seems very tilted in Russia’s favour.

‘And it’s even a question whether it should be termed a negotiation or in some sense, a series of American capitulations.’