Ukrainian negotiators to visit US for talks Friday and Saturday, Zelenskiy says
Zelenskiy says Kyiv cannot negotiate peace with Russia and discuss future business opportunities at the same time
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Ukrainian negotiators will travel to the United States for talks on Friday and Saturday, Zelenskiy said. He said Ukraine cannot be in peace talks with Russia and discuss future business opportunities at the same time.
The visit follows a run of statements rather than scheduled meetings. Trump said on Tuesday that the war is getting closer to ending but did not lay out any new negotiating mechanism. Russia struck Ukraine's energy grid on Wednesday in one of the war's largest attacks, killing nine people. Moscow's mayor said 650 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital region overnight on October 5, and Russia's defence ministry said it had struck data centres in major Ukrainian cities, a target type it had not previously claimed alongside energy and shipping infrastructure.
A Friday-Saturday visit by Ukrainian negotiators marks a concrete, scheduled diplomatic step, a departure from the pattern of verbal gestures that has followed Russia's hardened stance on neutrality and security guarantees and the wave of strikes on bridges, refineries and the Zaporizhzhia plant. It comes alongside a separate US channel involving Witkoff and Kushner and a floated deal over Lukoil assets, suggesting Washington is pairing a commercial incentive with a direct negotiating session.
Whether the weekend talks produce more than the "constructive" label attached to earlier meetings with Dmitriev depends on whether Moscow, which has kept saying conditions for talks are "not ready," offers any reciprocal signal before or after the sessions.