Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held a detailed 90-minute conversation with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as preparations continued for trilateral negotiations between Ukrainian, American and Russian teams, expected to take place in less than a week.
Zelenskyy also reported that representatives of Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, NATO, the World Bank and the global business community had held a meeting in Brussels to discuss post-war reconstruction.
Another meeting was scheduled to take place in Brussels the following day, focusing on security guarantees for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president stressed the need to maintain the highest possible pace of negotiations to end the war as soon as possible. He said Ukraine was ready to take the necessary steps and had already submitted its proposals to the American side.
Zelenskyy also identified air defence as a key priority, emphasizing the need for additional Patriot interceptor missiles to protect Ukrainian lives from Russian attacks. He added that Ukraine and the United States needed to continue working on all bilateral cooperation tracks, including the Drone Deals initiative.
Zelenskyy thanked the United States for supporting Ukraine's independence, its people and diplomatic efforts. He stressed that there was no alternative to peace and that post-war security guarantees needed to be extremely strong and reliable.
