Zelensky calls Trump envoys Witkoff, Kushner to 'lock in' dates for Ukraine visit
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 31 that he held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to discuss their future visit to Ukraine.
The two U.S. envoys have yet to visit Kyiv, despite leading Trump's efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and repeatedly traveling to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials.
Zelensky described his conversation with the U.S. officials as "detailed and constructive."
"Importantly, the dialogue between negotiating teams of the U.S. and Ukraine continues all the time, and now we are talking about locking in the dates for the visit to Ukraine," Zelensky posted on X.
"Such a trip would be highly beneficial for hammering out solutions for peace," he said, adding that the discussion also addressed the battlefield situation.
Both Witkoff and Kushner were expected to make their first visits to Ukraine earlier this month, but the trip was postponed — allegedly because Trump wanted to keep the diplomats close due to the unresolved standoff with Iran.
The announcement follows news that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in the U.S. to discuss Trump's 28-point peace plan.
An original version of the 28-point peace plan, brokered by Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev and first published last November, imposed punishing demands on Ukraine and was widely seen as a demand for Kyiv to surrender.
The plan was later revised and reduced to 20 points in a series of talks between Ukrainian and Western officials, but the Kremlin rejected the changes, and the negotiations reached a deadlock.
It remains unclear what version of the peace plan Bessent presented, and a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine does not "know anything" about the treasury chief's meeting with the Russian minister.
