Zelensky says solution to territorial issue requires meeting with Putin

“I want to maintain my position, which is that such complex issues can only be resolved at the level of leaders”, said at a press conference after his first talks in Kyiv with the emissaries of U.S. President Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Zelensky has long been calling for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to resolve the issue of territories, something the Kremlin refuses.

The two representatives of the White House met today with President Zelensky – for the first time in Kyiv – after, on the eve, they were received in the Kremlin by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky also stated at the press conference that despite his “positive” assessment of the talks with the American emissaries, the war against Russia seems destined to continue this winter, “at least for now”.

“ We sincerely hope to reach agreements with our American partners and we count on the support of our European partners, if the war continues during winter, which seems to be the case at the moment,” the Ukrainian President said.

Following the meeting in Kyiv, a session of talks took place involving the two US envoys, the Ukrainian delegation responsible for national security of the European Union.

On Friday, Trump declared that Witkoff and Kushner would take Moscow and Kyiv “a proposal to end the war” initiated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since returning to the White House in early 2025, Donald Trump began several rounds of negotiations to find a way out of the war triggered by the Russian invasion, the deadliest in Europe since World War II. These attempts by the US President, prem, so far have not led to any concrete progress.

Negotiations have stagnated mainly on the territorial issue, with Moscow demanding that the Ukrainian army withdraw fully from the eastern region of Donetsk – its priority objective – which Kyiv categorically refuses.

At the beginning of the campaign that led to his second term, Trump said that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in one day”, if he were in the White House, in a cretia to his predecessor, Joe Biden.