Zelenskyy to meet Witkoff, Kushner for talks aimed at ending Ukraine-Russia war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and American envoys arrived in Berlin on Sunday for another round of talks aimed at negotiating an end to the conflict. war in ukrainewhile Moscow and kyiv maintained their sharply opposing views on a possible peace agreement.

zelensky He said Ukrainian, American and European officials will hold a series of meetings. He said he will meet personally with US President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Berlin.

Answering journalists’ questions in audio clips in a WhatsApp group chat, Zelenskyy emphasized the need for Ukraine to receive firm guarantees from the United States and its European allies that would be similar to those offered to NATO members, after the United States and some European countries hindered Ukraine’s attempt to join the military alliance.

“These security guarantees are an opportunity to avoid another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a commitment on our part.”

Zelenskyy stressed that any security guarantee would have to be legally binding and backed by the US Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart.

He said he would meet separately with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and possibly other European leaders later in the evening. He said he had not yet received any response from the United States to Ukraine’s latest proposals on the peace plan.

Washington has been trying for months to navigate each side’s demands as Trump pushes for a quick end to the Russian war and grows increasingly exasperated by the delays. The search for potential compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control, among key conditions for peace, a demand Zelenskyy rejected again on Sunday.

Zelenskyy said the United States had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unviable.

“I don’t consider it fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” said. “If we are talking about a buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that there should only be a police mission there and the troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If the Ukrainian troops withdraw between 5 and 10 kilometers, for example, why do the Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories for the same distance?”

Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on freezing the line of contact, saying that “today a fair and possible option is to remain where we are.”

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would remain in parts of the Donetsk region even if it became a demilitarized zone under a possible peace plan.

Ushakov warned that finding a compromise could take a long time, noting that US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “made worse” by modifications proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking to Russian state television broadcast on Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is probably not constructive,” warning that Moscow “will have very strong objections.”

Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position,” he said.

Merz, who led European efforts to support Ukraine along with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and also for us in Germany.”

He warned that Putin’s goal is “a fundamental change in Europe’s borders, the restoration of the former Soviet Union within its borders.” “If Ukraine falls, it will not stop,” Merz warned Saturday during a party conference in Munich.

Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.