RIYADH: US President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia did a “great job” in hosting talks aimed at moving toward a resolution of the Russian-Ukraine war, and thanked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for facilitating the discussions in Riyadh. Trump said on Wednesday that the conflict, which began three years ago this month, would have never started had he been president. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “talked the US into spending $350 billion to go into a war that that could not be won, that never had to start and never would have started if I was president,” said Trump, adding that Ukraine would never settle the war without US involvement. Senior US and Russian officials attended a meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting was also attended by senior Saudis, but no Ukrainians. Trump said that Zelenskyy could have attended the discussions in the Saudi capital had he wanted to. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks, and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation. Trump, talking at the FII PRIORITY Miami event, which runs between Feb. 19-21, said he hopes that a ceasefire arrives soon. The president’s speech was wide-ranging, touching on efforts to cut government waste, boosting energy production, and his foreign policy objectives. Dignitaries included Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund; Elon Musk, the head of a new US federal entity — called DOGE — meant to cut government waste; and Princess Reema bint Bandar, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US.