Ukraine Races to the U.S. for Emergency Peace Talks as Russian Attacks Intensify

Ukraine is sending a high-level delegation to the United States on Saturday for further discussions on the Trump administration’s revised peace plan. The trip comes just days before White House envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow for additional talks.

Ukraine’s presidential office confirmed that the delegation is already en route.

The group will now be led by Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. Umerov stepped into the role after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff resigned on Friday following a corruption scandal.

Also joining the delegation are Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, along with senior officials from the country’s military, security, and foreign ministry sectors.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and businessman and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet with the Ukrainian officials Sunday in Florida, according to a senior U.S. official. 

The U.S. and Ukraine last held talks around a week ago in Geneva when they revised the peace plan to make it more acceptable to Ukraine.

In a post on social media on Saturday, Zelenskyy said he expects to be briefed by Umerov on the outcome of the talks on Sunday.

The talks are aimed at ensuring the results from the Geneva talks a week ago are “hammered out” and to “swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war,” he said.

“Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov, together with the team, is already on the way to the United States. Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war,” Zelenskyy said.

“Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way possible, and we expect that the results of the meetings in Geneva will now be hammered out in the United States,” Zelenskyy continued. “I look forward to our delegation’s report following its work this Sunday. Ukraine is working for a dignified peace.”

Meanwhile, Kyiv was targeted with major attack overnight into Saturday as Ukraine’s foreign minister said last night’s attack shows how Putin is determined to prolong the war despite the peace talks and called on the international community to help out more pressure on Russia.

“While everyone is discussing points of peace plans, Russia continues to pursue its “war plan” of two points: to kill and destroy,” Andriy Sybiha, the the Ukrainian foreign minister, wrote on X.

“Putin wants to prolong the war at any cost. The war he cannot win — and the war refuses to end. But the international community has the means to ensure that this cost becomes unbearable for him,” he said. “We urge additional support for Ukraine’s defense and resilience, additional strong sanctions on Russia, and a swift decision to enable the full use of frozen Russian assets.”

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