Ukraine, US to meet this week to discuss potential Zelensky-Putin talks
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect additional comments by the Trump administration's Russia envoy Steve Witkoff made on Aug. 26.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials are expected to meet later this week to discuss a potential meeting between Kyiv and Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 25.
In separate comments by the Trump administration's Russia envoy, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. official confirmed to Fox News on Aug. 26 that the meeting will take place in New York City.
"I'm meeting with the Ukrainians this week. So I will be meeting with them this week in New York, and that's a big signal. We talk to the Russians every day," Witkoff told Fox News.
Witkoff did not specify which officials would be in attendance for the meeting or which day it will take place.
The news comes amid U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a speedy peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. Following separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, Trump said that the next step would be a bilateral summit between the two leaders, which he hoped would occur in the next two weeks.
Witkoff expressed optimism that ongoing talks with the Ukrainian delegation would amount to a summit between the two leaders. "I think that we may end up seeing a bilateral meeting," Witkoff told Fox News.
The envoy voiced hope that the "ingredients" for the peace deal could be found by the end of the year, "or maybe quite a bit sooner."
According to Zelensky, he is also planning to discuss potential talks with the Russian side during a meeting with U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg later on Aug. 25.
Ukraine also expects to receive a plan on security guarantees backed by Western partners within days.
"We would like to understand from the American side whether the Russians are ready — and in what format — for a bilateral, and eventually trilateral, meeting," Zelensky said during a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Kyiv.
The meeting would mark the first encounter between Zelensky and Putin since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The two leaders last met in Paris in December 2019 as part of the Normandy Format talks mediated by France and Germany.
Talk preparations are being led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, the Ukrainian president said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Kremlin will not accept Zelensky's signature on legal documents establishing terms for an end to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, furthering the Russian propaganda claim that Zelensky lacks legitimacy.
