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Ukraine Receives Trump Gaza Peace Council Invite—Zelenskyy Questions Joint Format With Russia

Jan 20, 2026 15:38 Updated Jan 20, 2026 16:37

2 min read

Authors: Vlad Litnarovych
News Writer

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s President, at a news conference during a meeting of national security advisers in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 3, 2025. (Source: Getty Images)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine has received an invitation to participate in a newly announced US-backed Gaza “Peace Board,” he finds it difficult to imagine Kyiv sitting in the same body as Russia and Belarus, Zelenskyy said, speaking to journalists on January 20.

“We received the invitation. Diplomats are working on it,” the Ukrainian President said.

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“Honestly, Russia is our enemy, and Belarus is their ally. Honestly, for now it is very hard for me to imagine how we and Russia could be together in one council or another. This is not specifically about this ‘Peace Council.’ It’s just that Russia is about a council of war, and Belarus is with them—namely, the Lukashenko regime,” he said.

The “Peace Council,” announced by the White House last week, is intended to serve as an international governing body for Gaza following a ceasefire.

According to publicly outlined plans by Bloomberg, the council would be chaired by US President Donald Trump and include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former UK prime minister Tony Blair.

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Trump would serve as the council’s first chair and retain authority to determine which countries are admitted. Each member state would formally have one vote, but all decisions would require approval from the chair. Membership terms would last up to three years, while permanent seats would be available to countries contributing at least $1 billion.

Trump has invited Belarus and Russia to oversee the implementation of a 20-point ceasefire deal that the United States says it brokered between Israel and Hamas last October in his “Peace Board.”

Earlier, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, held separate phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and said Moscow was willing to mediate to help de-escalate tensions surrounding Iran.

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