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Zelenskyy Credits US Envoys With Reopening Direct Ukraine-Russia Contact After Moscow Talks
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Ukraine, the US, and Russia are moving toward a trilateral meeting that Kyiv would prefer to convene this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated, speaking to reporters on September 8. New American proposals raised during the recent talks remain undisclosed, he added.
Zelenskyy laid out the timeline during a question-and-answer session, days after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held talks in Moscow and Kyiv. He described the US-Ukraine-Russia format as the direction the process was taking, while stressing that no date had been fixed.
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The president tied the schedule to a hoped-for meeting with US President Donald Trump. He noted that he wanted that encounter in September and expected to raise Ukraine's air-defense needs there.
A trilateral session could follow in the fall, he added, naming the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, and Turkey among possible hosts. "If it works out in September, then wonderful — the sooner, the better," he remarked, framing the timing as Kyiv's preference rather than an agreed schedule.
On the substance of the American ideas, Zelenskyy was guarded. He acknowledged that a couple of the proposals were strong and worth pursuing, but declined to detail them publicly. Kyiv and Washington had agreed to work through the material privately before communicating it, he explained.
The remarks followed the envoys' visit, which Zelenskyy credited with reopening direct contact between Ukraine and Russia. The delegation traveled by train to Kyiv, marking Witkoff and Kushner’s first visit to the Ukrainian capital after several trips to Moscow.
He noted that Russia had struck the runways at Kyiv's Zhuliany and Boryspil airports, which he read as an attempt to signal insecurity, though he emphasized the airports had remained operational.
Zelenskyy pointed to humanitarian questions, above all prisoner exchanges, as an immediate priority, alongside energy and grain. He called for larger, faster exchanges and for the talks to produce concrete results rather than mere discussion. Advisers from Ukraine, the US, and European partners are due to meet in the near term, he added, describing Europe as an essential party to any format.
The trilateral push has advanced quickly. On September 5, Witkoff and Kushner met the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow for more than three hours before traveling on to Kyiv the following day for the envoys' first visit to the Ukrainian capital.
US President Donald Trump had announced that same day that the pair would carry a peace proposal to both capitals, and Kushner has since described Washington's aim as a broader settlement built to outlast a simple halt in the fighting.
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-b2c599bb96f9ce8bf3026e53851062f5.png "Ukrainian defense officials participate in a virtual NATO-Ukraine Council meeting chaired by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. (Source: Ministry of Defence of Ukraine)")
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
