Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he hoped to host US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Kyiv in the coming days to resume efforts to end the Russian invasion. Diplomatic push to end Russia’s four-and-a-half-year invasion has stalled in recent months as the United States has shifted its focus towards the war with Iran.
“We expect to see the envoys of the President of America here in Kyiv. We have confirmation from them,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “They will have meetings in Moscow and in Kyiv. We are counting on a meeting in the coming days,” he added.
Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been involved in shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine, travelling to Moscow multiple times. They have never been to Kyiv. Zelensky said that “tentative dates have been set” for the envoys’ first visit to the Ukrainian capital, which has endured intensified Russian drone and missile attacks over the past week.
In July, Zelensky said he had spoken with Witkoff and Kushner “to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, killing thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops.
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