Ukraine says plans underway for a Zelenskyy-Trump meeting

By Daryna Krasnolutska

Preliminary planning is underway for a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President-elect Donald Trump amid concerns over future US support, Kyiv’s top diplomat said on Saturday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha spoke at a press briefing in Kyiv with Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign policy official.

A “dialogue” has been established between Zelenskyy and Trump, Sybiha said, after the pair spoke this week.

“Possible future contacts at the level of leaders were discussed, and it was agreed that teams will start preparation work to organize such a meeting,” he said, declining to indicate whether a meeting is planned before or after Trump’s inauguration in January.

Zelenskyy has had a troubled relationship with Trump since a controversial 2019 phone call that ultimately lead to an impeachment trial of the US president. The two met in New York in September, though, with Zelenskyy pitching his so-called victory plan, which he said aimed to force Russia to negotiate.

Trump’s pledge to broker a swift end to the war has raised fears in Kyiv that Ukraine may be driven into a settlement that would freeze the conflict in its current position, allowing the Kremlin time to re-arm and renew its assault, as well as hold onto large swathes of territory in Ukraine’s east and southeast.

“We need real peace but not aggressor’s appeasement, which will bring a bigger war,” Sybiha said.

With Russia’s army accelerating its advance in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy is under growing pressure as he appeals to Kyiv’s US and European allies to speed up promised weapons deliveries.

Ukrainian soldiers occupying territory in Russia’s Kursk region are also confronting thousands of North Korean troops sent recently to bolster Moscow’s forces, as the war nears the 1,000-day mark.

The long conflict “is a direct testimony” that some decisions have been deliberated for too long and with an “inadequate perception of reality,” Sybiha said.

He called once again for the US and some European partners to permit the use of Western weapons to strike deeper inside Russia at its military objects, and to strengthen air defenses, including by shooting down Moscow’s missiles by Ukraine’s neighbours.

Kyiv continues to use long-range drones to hit targets inside Russia. Ukraine’s state security service and special forces attacked a plant in the Tula region, about 180 kilometers (111 miles) south of Moscow, overnight as part of a strategy to target factories that support the Kremlin’s war effort, a person familiar with matter said.

Work at the plant, which produces ammunition and gunpowder, was put on halt with staff evacuated, the person said, asking not to be named discussing security issues. Bloomberg News was not able to verify the strike independently, and Russia hasn’t commented.

European leaders met in Budapest this week, including to discuss whether the EU will be ready to foot the bill for the war if Trump seek to shift the financial burden on Europe, Bloomberg News reported.

The US is likely to propose solutions that will mean less involvement in European and Ukrainian affairs, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Saturday in Warsaw. “So whatever these proposals are, we will have to take more responsibility for it as Europe.”

Borrell, standing by Sybiha in Kyiv, pledged that the EU support will remain “unwavering”.

“It is for Ukraine to decide when to sit at a negotiating table and under which terms,” he said, adding, “let’s not be naive. Putin doesn’t want to negotiate and will not negotiate unless forced to do it.”

Borrell, who’s set to leave office next month, said EU defense ministers would meet next week to discuss aid to Ukraine and would make a case for “boosting support at this critical hour.” Sybiha and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov are expected to join the gathering, he said.