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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Special representatives of the U.S. president, Steve Vigoff and Jared Kushner, spent a day in Kyiv. The American side met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian negotiating team, and European representatives.
Vigoff and Kushner arrived in Kyiv today by train. As Zelensky noted, “the Russians showed with their strikes that they cannot operate by air, even though we prepared everything, our airports are functioning.” The American delegation was met off the train by the Ukrainian team — Kyrylo Budanov, Rustem Umerov, and David Arakhamia. The negotiations continued in several sessions. Initially the American team met with the Ukrainian side, and later representatives from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany joined the discussion. Photo: President Zelensky and representatives of Trump in Kyiv (Office of the President). Zelenskiy’s remarks: Zelensky noted that today there were three rounds of talks. “Today you performed even better than the ‘Patriot’ systems for our citizens in the capital. Thank you. Come more often and we will have the opportunity to live a little,” the president joked, addressing Vigoff and Kushner. “We had good conversations, we can joke about ‘Patriots’ sometimes, but we understand this is a very urgent issue. We gave sufficient attention to the winter period, to all challenges that may really arise. We very much hope that we will have the opportunity to negotiate with American partners and we hope for European partners. If the war continues in winter, that is how it looks. The teams today evaluate our future possibilities positively. If the war continues in winter, we strongly count on a winter package,” the president added, noting that difficult questions can only be resolved at the leadership level. Zelenskiy’s statements: Everyone notes that we have strengthened on the battlefield. This gives us the ability to be more confident in any format of future discussions. We must do everything so that trilateral meetings take place. Let’s see what Russia agrees to. Today it still has a lot of confidence, unfortunately, to think about this or that format. Our weak spot is anti-ballistic capability. We will strengthen it. I will have meetings in Norway and Canada; we must close a few things. The American side will increase next year the volume of production of anti-ballistic missiles, and we expect such systems. In recent days, it has truly been terrible what is happening in the sky. Putin is doing this before his elections. He is increasing strikes. A new tactic. We will respond in kind. Today we have about 60 companies in Ukraine that are already working to intercept cruise missiles. To be precise — 67. A few companies have already shown results. All of this is defense and it is a Plan B. Plan A is to accelerate diplomatic efforts as much as possible to reduce escalation. What steps can be taken and when—we met, in the coming weeks we will have (Ukraine, the United States, Europe) an opportunity to discuss some details that today we do not want to talk about aloud. We want there to be a result. There were several new ideas; we discussed them, give us a chance to analyze them. The Donbas question is not only a Donbas issue. I believe this is a question of this war. War is about survival and exhaustion. It is a territorial issue that is a target of the Russian Federation.” Vigoff’s statements: Photo: Vigoff in Kyiv (Office of the President) Vigoff stated that Trump asked them to come to Ukraine to resume negotiations, because it is very important to him. “I hope everyone understands that this is very important for us and we are very seriously inclined to achieve a result,” he added. Vigoff also said that he met with Putin and his team in Moscow about 8 times. Three times he traveled to the Russian Federation with Kushner and each time they were “respectfully received.” Vigoff’s statements: For resolving such conflicts, relations are very important. If you do not have established relations and communication with both sides, chances for a peaceful settlement are very small. First we went to Putin to hear his position. We had a substantive conversation with him, which we told Zelensky. Both sides must reach a decision. And our and Jared’s mission here is to bring both sides to dialogue, to create channels of communication. I hope we have started this process.” Kushner’s statements: Photo: Kushner in Kyiv (Office of the President) “President Trump sends his regards. He is watching the situation very closely and is diligently working to find a way out of this war. The president is now focused not only on stopping the conflict but on creating frameworks within which a long-term peace could be built,” Kushner said. He also noted that Trump tasked them with preparing a peace package. “Steve and I believe that a trilateral format, which we tried six months ago, would be productive if we return to negotiations. We discussed this with both sides and hope to return to it soon. It is very important to discuss not only big issues but also de-escalation issues. Steve and I believe a trilateral format is more useful because all parties talk to each other,” Kushner said. Kushner’s statements: There are no concepts in the world like “eternal enemy” or “eternal ally.” We must approach solving this with the idea of what the best possible outcome is, what benefits can be obtained. President Trump came from the business world. And in the business world you think in terms of “win-win” — how to create room for both sides to act in their interests. War is a negative approach; everyone loses.
Also read: Vigoff and Kushner in Ukraine. What is known about Trump’s first envoy visit to Kyiv
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Переговорники у Києві. Про що говорили Віткофф та Кушнер з Україною та Європою". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: RBC-Ukraine.
