Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and his team held phone talks with US President Donald Trump’s aide Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Thursday about ending the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyj called the X discussion, which lasted about an hour according to Reuters, very good, and praised the constructive approach of the Americans.
“We are really working 24 hours a day every day to get closer to the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective and reliable,” the Ukrainian head of state said, adding that these were “substantial details.”
“Real security, real recovery and real peace are what we all need – Ukraine, the United States, Europe and every partner that helps us. I hope that today’s Christmas understanding and the ideas we discussed will prove useful,” he also noted.
Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov will negotiate with Witkoff and Kushner again, added Zelensky, who sent Christmas greetings to Trump and his entire family through American negotiators.
A new 20-point version of the US peace plan was published on Wednesday and envisages, among other things, freezing the front on the current lines and starting negotiations on the creation of demilitarized zones. However, mainly Russian demands for territorial concessions from Ukraine or the question of the country’s possible accession to NATO remain unresolved.
The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Marija Zakharova, said today, according to the TASS agency, that slow but certain progress is being seen in the process of negotiations with the United States to end the war. At the same time, she called on Washington to actively oppose attempts by Western European countries to “torpedo” the progress achieved.
For almost four years now, Ukraine has been facing a Russian invasion launched on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In last year’s election campaign, Trump promised to end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House. Despite repeated phone calls with Putin and a personal meeting between the two presidents in Alaska in August, he has not yet succeeded. However, diplomatic efforts have escalated over the past month after the United States unveiled an initial draft of the peace plan, which critics described as strikingly pro-Russian.
