{"id":186809,"date":"2025-08-30T08:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T08:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186809\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T08:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T08:11:15","slug":"zelenskyy-seeks-meetings-with-trump-and-european-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186809\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy seeks meetings with Trump and European leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukrainian officials want to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders next week to discuss recent developments<\/a> in efforts to end the three-year war<\/a> with Russia.<\/p>\n

The proposed meetings appeared designed to add momentum to the push for peace, as Zelenskyy expressed frustration with what he called Russia\u2019s lack of constructive engagement in the process while it continues to launch devastating aerial attacks on civilian areas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump has bristled at Russian leader Vladimir Putin\u2019s stalling on an U.S. proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy, and said a week ago he expected to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks aren\u2019t scheduled.<\/p>\n

Trump complained last month that Putin \u201c talks nice and then he bombs everybody<\/a>.\u201d But he has also chided Ukraine for its attacks.<\/p>\n

At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday, the United States warned Russia to move toward peace and meet with Ukraine or face possible sanctions. The meeting was called after a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday that killed at least 23 people <\/p>\n

John Kelley, the U.S. mission\u2019s minister-counselor, said the strikes \u201ccast doubt on the seriousness of Russia\u2019s desire for peace\u201d and demanded they stop. He said Putin and Zelenskyy must agree to meet, and reiterated Trump\u2019s warning that the U.S. could impose sanctions on Russia if the war continues.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy\u2019s top adviser meets Trump\u2019s special envoy in New York<\/p>\n

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine\u2019s presidential office, met on Friday in New York with Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff<\/a> to discuss preparations for upcoming meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key priority is to push forward real diplomacy and ensure the implementation of all the agreements reached at the Washington summit,\u201d Yermak said in a social media post. \u201cWe are coordinating our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yermak said he had briefed Witkoff on Russia\u2019s latest attacks on Ukraine and lamented that Putin had shown no willingness to engage in peace efforts despite his meeting with Trump in Alaska this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Russia is failing to fulfill anything necessary to end the war and is clearly dragging out the hostilities,\u201d Yermak wrote in a lengthy post on X. \u201cUkraine supports President Trump\u2019s firm resolve, as well as that of all partners, to achieve a lasting peace as soon as possible. Ukraine welcomes all peace initiatives put forward by the United States. But unfortunately, each of them is being stalled by Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the meeting, a White House official said only that Yermak and Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine\u2019s ambassador extraordinary, gave Witkoff a status update on the war and Russia\u2019s strikes on Kyiv this week. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. <\/p>\n

Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv that he expected \u201cseveral meetings at different venues\u201d with European leaders next week.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian negotiators have been trying to move the peace process forward in talks in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and the United States, he said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has accepted a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire and a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, but Moscow has raised objections.<\/p>\n

Ukraine wants leaders involved<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy accused Russia of dragging out negotiations, including by putting off a Russia-Ukraine summit with the argument that the groundwork for a possible peace settlement must be thrashed out first by lower officials before leaders meet.<\/p>\n

That reasoning, Zelenskyy said, is \u201cartificial \u2026 because they want to show the United States that they are constructive, but they are not constructive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, leaders must urgently be involved to reach agreements,\u201d Zelenskyy added.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday reiterated Moscow\u2019s long-held position that Putin \u201cdoesn\u2019t rule out\u201d meeting Zelenskyy, but only after progress is made \u201cat the expert level.\u201d<\/p>\n

A summit \u201cmust be well prepared so that it can finalize the work that must first be carried out at the expert level,\u201d Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point we can\u2019t say that the expert work is in full swing, so to speak. No, unfortunately, not. We maintain our interest and our readiness for these negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy says more weapons are crucial for security<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy urged swift secondary sanctions on countries that trade with Russia and thereby support its war economy.<\/p>\n

He said the possible postwar security guarantees<\/a> being assessed by Western countries to deter another Russian invasion in the future must include a secure supply of weapons for Ukraine, either through domestic production or Western provision, and U.S. weapons paid for by Europe.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy\u2019s comments came after the death toll in a major Russian missile and drone strike<\/a> on the Ukrainian capital rose to 23, including four children, officials said Friday. Ukraine needs more sophisticated Western air defense systems to counter such attacks.<\/p>\n

Kyiv region observes a day of mourning<\/p>\n

Authorities in the Kyiv region declared Friday an official day of mourning. Flags flew at half-staff and all entertainment events were canceled after Russia hammered Ukraine<\/a> with almost 600 drones and more than 30 missiles overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, including rare strikes on downtown Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Rescue workers pulled 17 people from the rubble after the attack, among them four children, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The youngest victim was a 2-year-old girl. Some bodies have yet to be identified, and eight people remain unaccounted for, authorities said. More than 50 people were wounded.<\/p>\n

More diplomatic moves lie ahead<\/p>\n

Putin is due to attend a meeting in China<\/a> from Sunday that will also include Iran and North Korea, countries that have aided Russia\u2019s war effort, according to the United States.<\/p>\n

The war in Ukraine is certain to be a top issue at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, noted that recent U.S. presidents have shied away from taking a tougher line with Putin for fear of a potential nuclear conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin knows that Washington and its allies have more than enough capacity to reverse his gains in Ukraine, but it is nearly certain that he doubts the United States has the will to do so,\u201d the Atlantic Council said in an assessment this week.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cthe second Trump administration has repeatedly signaled that the United States has no vital interests at stake in this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Ukrainian officials want to meet with U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3661,3881,7838,37325,69,57,3464,104715,37593,50,80,257,3657,13226,273,3660,67,370,274,3656,96,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-186809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-andriy-yermak","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-diplomacy","11":"tag-dmitry-peskov","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-international-agreements","15":"tag-john-kelley","16":"tag-kyiv","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","21":"tag-steve-witkoff","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-ukraine-government","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-government","26":"tag-vladimir-putin","27":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","28":"tag-war-and-unrest","29":"tag-world","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115116709256184457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}