In Kyiv on 6 September, three rounds of talks were held with US representatives. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at a briefing after they concluded, described the negotiations as substantive, an LB correspondent reports.
The President thanked Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as the American leader Donald Trump. Zelenskyy joked that Witkoff and Kushner’s visit was “even better than Patriot systems”.
“Come more often — and we’ll have a chance to let our people live a little,” he said.
Zelenskyy added that the air-defence issue is very important, and it received a great deal of attention — as did preparations for the winter period.
“If the war continues through the winter — and that’s how it looks for now — nevertheless, the teams today are assessing our future capabilities positively. So: if the war continues through the winter, we are really counting on the winter package, which I discussed in absolutely thorough detail today,” Zelenskyy said.
This package includes air defence, energy support, and NLG.
They also discussed the possibility of resuming trilateral negotiations.
“The territorial issue remains relevant. In my view — I’m telling you my opinion. That doesn’t mean we talked about it for a very long time. But we did discuss it,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.
He is convinced that such complex issues can only be resolved at the leaders’ level. But the main thing, he said, was that there was an opportunity to discuss everything, including security guarantees and Ukraine’s future.
“We all want to end the war as quickly as possible. We are talking about a prosperity plan — not only security guarantees, but economic guarantees for Ukraine,” he added.
The main security guarantee is a strong Ukrainian army, and that requires resources. Ukraine must not fear a renewed attack, he stressed.
At the talks, with the participation of national security advisers from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, they agreed on new negotiations in this format. It is not yet known in which country they will take place: a European country, Ukraine or the United States.
Talks With the United States
In November last year, after talks with Russia, the Americans brought to Kyiv a 28-point peace plan that contained some points unacceptable to Ukraine: abandoning the course towards NATO, reducing the size of the Ukrainian army, and a demand to withdraw troops from the free territory of Donbas.
The Ukrainian President warned of the risk of losing the United States as a key ally and added that Kyiv would fight to change the position. After that, Ukraine and the United States held several rounds of talks: in Geneva, the United States and Berlin. The Berlin talks took place with the participation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Separately, the United States held talks with the Russians. First, Ukrainians and Americans worked out proposals for the main plan, shortened to 20 points, and then took them to show the Russians.
There were also trilateral meetings in the UAE.
At the talks in Florida in December, the main unresolved issues remained territorial questions, ownership of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and certain points on security guarantees.
Russia demanded that Ukraine withdraw its army from the entire territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions — including the free parts as well. It also wanted to keep Crimea, and the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The United States supported the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the unoccupied part of Donbas, proposing to create a free economic zone there. At the same time, it is unclear who and how would control ensuring that Moscow does not instead bring in its own troops or officials disguised as civilians.
Washington proposes that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant be managed jointly by three parties.
Zelenskyy said that if there is an ultimatum to create a free economic zone in Donbas, it must be decided by the people of Ukraine. He himself considers it fair to cease fire along the current lines of demarcation and then negotiate.
A significant result of the talks was the resumption of prisoner exchanges, but it was not possible to reach consensus in the military-political bloc.
After the start of the US and Israeli operation against Iran, the trilateral meetings stopped. The last round was in February. At that time, discussions got stuck on the Donbas issue.
In March, the Ukrainian delegation flew separately to the United States. Witkoff and Kushner flew to Moscow, but not to Kyiv. The current visit is their first. They arrived in Ukraine after meeting Putin in Russia on 5 September.