After about 3 hours, the first round of talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner concluded in Kiev. This was reported by Ukrinform citing informed sources. A US official told the Kyiv Independent that the talks were taking place in a positive atmosphere. US envoys and Zelensky are soon expected to participate in another round of talks with national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany, according to people familiar with the matter.
A significant part of the first round of talks between Ukraine and the United States concerned Ukraine’s winter needs, sources familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Independent. The country is bracing for a new wave of Russian attacks on its energy grid over the winter months, after Moscow’s air campaign last winter destroyed 9 GW of the country’s power generation capacity.
Zelensky: We are all on the side of a just peace
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with whom he held talks this afternoon for the first time in Kiev. «I want to thank our teams, the American team. Thanks to the whole group. We have already had two panel discussions, we will come out to the press a little later,” he said in videos released by Ukrainian media.
“Here we are all on the same side and we all really want there to be no war, no suffering, that people do not die,” he underlined, “that this war ends with a just, fair peace for all of us.”
Witkoff: ‘Meaningful, substantial, important talks’
US envoy Steve Witkoff said the talks he had in Kiev with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and his team on ending the war with Russia were “substantive” and will continue. “We had a very significant, substantive, important discussion, and we are very encouraged and look forward to continuing this dialogue as long as it takes,” Witkoff said at the end of the talks.