Zelenskyy meets Ukraine’s negotiating team ahead of US envoys’ arrival

Ukraine says it is ready for the next conversation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the country’s negotiating team ahead of talks with US President Donald Trump’s representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were due to arrive in Kyiv on 6 September.

The meeting brought together Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the President’s Office, his first deputy Serhii Kyslytsia, Rustem Umierov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, and Davyd Arakhamiia, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction.

Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian side had prepared its proposals. “We are ready for the conversation. Ukraine has always been and will remain constructive. We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A dignified character of the postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are ready,” he said.

The planned Kyiv talks followed Witkoff and Kushner’s arrival in Moscow on 5 September. They went to the Kremlin after a business lunch with Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

Later that day, the Kremlin said Putin had ordered that no strikes be carried out on Kyiv for three days, beginning at midnight. After speaking with Trump’s special envoys, Zelenskyy said Kyiv was willing to halt airstrikes on cities involved in the negotiating process. The Kremlin also highlighted key points from the talks between the US representatives and Putin.

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We are ready for the conversation. Ukraine has always been and will remain constructive. We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A dignified character of the postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are ready.