President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced a meeting between representatives of Ukraine and the United States later this week to discuss the possibility of future talks between Ukraine and Russia.
“There have been several meetings. And today there will be a meeting with Kellogg (US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg – ed.) to continue this topic, to develop preparations regarding the possibility of an upcoming meeting with the Russian side. At the end of the week there will be a meeting between the Ukrainian team and the American team. Accordingly, the people you mentioned (Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Special Envoy for Russia Steve Witkoff – ed.), or part of those people,” Zelensky said on 25 August in Kiev at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stiore.
He did not give details, but noted that “there will be a lot of work during the week.”
“We will have a basic plan for security guarantees… and after that, I would like to understand from the American side whether the Russians are ready and for what configuration, whether they are ready for the configuration proposed by the US and supported by Ukraine: a bilateral and then a trilateral meeting,” the president said.
After talks with Zelensky and European leaders on 18 August, US President Donald Trump announced that he was preparing a leaders-level meeting between Ukraine and Russia, and admitted that a trilateral summit with his participation would then take place as well. Subsequently, Trump stated that he” would not want ” to participate in a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
The Kremlin has not confirmed plans for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, saying only that Moscow may “explore the possibility of raising the level of representatives” at the Ukraine-Russia talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was not rejecting any format of peace talks on ending the war against Ukraine: neither bilateral nor trilateral, but added that any contacts with the participation of top officials should be prepared “with the utmost care”.