Trump keeps Ukraine diplomacy running ahead of Zelenskyy meeting
Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, extending a diplomatic push that has run for weeks
Published
Trump is scheduled to meet Zelenskyy on Tuesday, continuing a run of contacts with both sides of the Ukraine war. The meeting follows a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 8, which Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described as a "constructive and quite frank" hour-long conversation about the war and Russia's battlefield plans, according to Al Jazeera. That call came after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow and Kyiv to discuss a proposal to end the fighting, Al Jazeera reported.
A Kremlin readout of the September 8 call said Trump told Putin that a swift end to the war could open the way to restoring US-Russia trade ties, CNBC reported. Despite that outreach, intelligence officials in the United States, Ukraine and Europe still doubt Putin is seriously interested in ending a war now in its fourth year, Reuters reported, according to GV Wire. Trump has said the holdup to a deal is that Putin and Zelenskyy "hate each other," the same report said.
On other fronts, Putin discussed a Turkish plan for Black Sea shipping with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Kremlin says more diplomatic contact is expected. The Kremlin also says Russia is developing new grain export routes and blames Ukraine for disrupting Black Sea shipping.
Trump has signaled interest in a settlement repeatedly over the past week, and Tuesday's meeting with Zelenskyy fits that pattern rather than marking a shift in his approach. Taken together with his contacts with Moscow, it points to Trump keeping channels open on both sides of the conflict rather than moving toward a resolution. For markets, the diplomacy remains neutral until concrete terms emerge.