US, Ukrainian officials are discussing bringing Zelenskyy to us, sources say
US and Ukrainian authorities are discussing bringing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the US this week as part of President Trump’s push to get a Agreement on Ukraine Thankfully, according to several US and Ukrainian officials familiar with the talks.
Whether Zelenskyy’s trip takes place depends on the outcome of peace talks in Geneva on Sunday, officials said. Mr Trump himself described the deadline as flexible, and told reporters on Saturday that the plan was “not my final request.
Speaking from Geneva, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is making progress in talks about the CADRE of European and Ukrainian officials, but says more work will have to be done.
“I think this was a very good thing, I’d say maybe the best – meeting and the day we are so far in this process, we’re back to where we started when we entered the office in January,” he said. “But there’s still some work to do and that’s what our teams will be doing right now,” Rubio added, promising updates after more meetings.
“We have made a lot of progress and we are moving forward with lasting peace,” said Andrmak Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, after meeting with Rubio.
There are no serious plans for Zelenskyy’s visit at this time given the active diplomacy and there are no scheduled talks in Russia at this time, according to a White House official. One outcome of the talks in Geneva is that Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll may travel to Russia or meet with Russian officials elsewhere, according to one of the US officials. Russian authorities told CBB News that nothing was planned.
Ukraine’s response to the 28-point memo
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, was told to “face the nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that her country did not agree to all the terms. The 28-Point Peace Program which matured in the media last week.
“This plan does not talk about justice and the truth of war and aggression,” said Stefanishyna. “It’s about, you know, ending the war and preventing military involvement.”
Stefanishyna said that Russia has not made any representations so far and that there are no points in the mature 28-point plan related to forcing anything on the Russian side.
In addition to the proposal, the first draft of which was approved by an opposition politician in Ukraine and confirmed by the White House, there is a document accompanying this official related to security guarantees, according to the US and Ukrainian authorities.
Stefanishyna also confirmed that there is an additional document at 28 points and referred to it as a “security verification framework.” He said that the intention of the US is to offer something along the lines of Article 5 of Washington Nato, as a defense promise. However, unlike the NATO Guaverances, the security guarantees do not have a detailed structure of security guarantees or the weight of the RENMANI approval and support that will come with the agreement. That’s a challenge for Ukraine, Stefanishyna said, partly because of the West’s past failure to live up to the assurances offered when Ukraine surrendered its nuclear weapons as part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Why now?
An American official told CBS news that Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to believe that he will take over the Donetsk region in Ukraine one way or another – be it on the battlefield. The Trump Administration’s talks in Geneva started from the premise that Putin is right. While that same US official refused to provide a US assessment of whether Ukraine is losing the war in the East, US official
he said the trajectory of combat points in Russia taking Donetsk. This official indicated that the Russian advance in the city of the Eastern Frontline of Pokrovsk, which is a Ukrainian logistics center, was not a good sign for the defense of Kyiv. Russian media often refer to Pokrovsk as the “Gateway” to the Ukrainian Donbas region.
Inter-Trump Administration Confusion
There were separate but related efforts on Ukraine happening within the Trump administration that are now being consolidated.
Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the US’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, have been working on what they say is a war, hammering out their broad proposals for Gaza. When the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas to bring Putin to the negotiating table, Putin Advisor Kirill Dmitrives was at the Miami table talking to Witkoff late last month.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besslent at the time dismissed Dmitried as a “Russian” figurehead, but it was Dmitrieve who helped write the 28-point proposal that the US now backs up. A senior House official told CBS News that Phs President JD Vence and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were kept “allowed” for those talks, which took place in Miami last month. At a time when Zelenskyy was facing domestic political insults at home, the Kushner-Witkoff sheet was blown to the grave by the opposition politics in Ukraine and the interview with DmitmiveE was done with axios.
On Saturday, a number of Senators, including DemonAst Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Independent Sen. Mike had blocked sharing the military with Ukraine if not the goals. Rubio posted Saturday on social media that “the plan was written by the US”
However, a Ukrainian official and an American official told Cybs news that the threat was made during talks with other American officials in Kyiv. Driscoll, a close friend of his, led the team there last week. He is now in Geneva as part of the talks.
A senior House official admitted to CBB News that the threat to cut off aid to Ukraine may have been mentioned but not defended during an interview with Mr.
A senior White House official told CBB News that VBS News and Rubio held a call Saturday night with Driscoll and US military leadership to answer questions from law enforcement. Rubio makes more calls to lawmakers, says Shaheen, chief and detailed rounds
“There are many problems with the plan as reported, but two of the most obvious are that it rewards Russia’s illegal aggression by providing for many parts of Ukraine’s aggression, and its assurances against Russian aggression cannot be enough,” said SENATI King in a statement on Sunday. “I hope that after consultation with Ukraine and the Europeans, a fair and proper agreement will emerge.”
When did the army join the conversation?
Driscoll has been in contact with Ukrainian officials in recent weeks and originally planned to travel to Ukraine in mid-December to discuss drone technology, but has recently been asked by Mr Trump to restart talks on a ceasefire. Driscoll’s role in the negotiations held the details of the security assurances offered to Ukraine.
Driscoll combined his two trips on this trip. While Driscoll was on his way to Ukraine, a 28-point plan was opened by the anti-Zelenskyy politician. After this point, the Driscoll Mission was “corrected” to include a speech sheet appearing in the Kushner-Witkoff mature sheet, according to US officials familiar with the arrangement.
US authorities refused to discuss details of whether the 28-point plan, or the additional security guarantee document, had changed in the past few days.
Vance has been the driving force behind Ukraine Diplomacy, according to European prozomay and a general source. His close friend has become a key earner.
Political Implications
The Trump administration has been reached in the past few days to answer the Senators and the Congressban including the powerful, the robbers in Ukraine. The Republican Rep mike McCaul, the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House, publicly admitted what its exit from vence-rubio and he was assured that it is an American proposal and not a Russian one.
The Trump administration is sensitive to the idea of a feud between Rubio and WITKOFF. It was WITKOFF’S INCORPORATED August Summit with Putin in Alaska.
There has been retroactive policy making and a repetition of events as we can see from the camera comments made by Rubio’s old allies who may remember that he was a Whank of the Senate during the Senate Senate. Since his time in the Senate, Vance has been consistent in arguing that Ukraine should not be a priority for the U.S. Meanwhile, Witkoff has been trying to get Mr. Trump’s agreement to end the war.
