Zelensky says Ukraine, US will meet after Russia visit

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainian officials are preparing to meet with American negotiators, after high-stakes talks between the United States and Russia on a plan to end the war in Ukraine failed to produce tangible results.

Zelensky said a meeting would be arranged “in the coming days” once the US team returned from Moscow.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent nearly five hours with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

Later, Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov said that “no compromise” had been made to end the war. Later, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Putin of “wasting the world’s time.”

In a statement Wednesday, Zelensky said Ukrainian officials would speak with the United States “in person or by phone.”

“Right now, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war,” he continued in a statement on X, along with a video.

But he added that negotiations must be “backed by pressure on Russia.”

The U.S.-Russian talks in the Kremlin followed days of U.S. meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders after concerns were raised that a peace deal too biased toward Russia’s demands was brewing.

“Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, although they need to be discussed further,” Ushakov said, adding that others had been openly criticized by the Russian leader.

Although Ushakov did not elaborate, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and kyiv: the fate of Ukrainian territory taken by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the case of a peace agreement, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership in NATO.

Russia vehemently opposes such a proposal, and Trump has also repeatedly signaled that he has no intention of allowing kyiv into the alliance.

The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO was a “key issue” addressed in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser to Putin, implied that Russia’s negotiating position had been strengthened by recent battlefield successes.

Russian soldiers “helped make our foreign partners’ assessments of the paths to a peace agreement more appropriate,” he said.

Ahead of the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was filmed dressed in military uniform at a Russian command post, being briefed by commanders claiming the conquest of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.

Fighting in Pokrovsk continues and Russian forces do not control the entire city, but Russian officials clearly believe that the United States has heard their message of military achievements.

Russian forces have made some gradual gains in the east and appear to have intensified their campaign in recent weeks. They seized some 701 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in November, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that Putin was willing to continue meeting with the Americans “as many times as necessary.”

But as Russian-American relations appear to become more cordial, the chasm between Moscow and Europe is widening.

Putin has accused Europe of sabotaging Russia’s relations with the United States, making demands that Moscow could not accept and blocking the peace process. Shortly before meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want a conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war.”

UK government officials dismissed Putin’s message as “another Kremlin nonsense from a president who is not serious about peace.”

Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it was positive that peace talks were taking place but Ukraine had to be put in “the strongest position to keep the fight going”.

Meanwhile, EU member states have reached an agreement with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas by the end of 2027.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed “the dawn of a new era”, under a deal that means long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia will be banned from September 2027 and long-term liquefied natural gas contracts will be banned from January 2027.

“We have chosen energy security and independence for Europe. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand firm with Ukraine,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.

The Commission also proposes raising €90 billion for Ukraine to finance its military and basic services while Russia’s war continues.

The plan would require Belgium to accept a “reparation loan” using frozen Russian assets held at a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be financed through international loans.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has welcomed the proposal, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial needs over the next two years.

Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets held on its territory, fearing legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for a repair loan.

The proposed loan is smaller than the €140 billion loan initially planned and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “We support it and of course take Belgium’s concerns seriously.”