Meeting between Zelensky and Trump: what was achieved and what was not

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky 22 September in New York held another meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The closed-door part of the talks lasted about 40 minutes.

24 The Channel analyzed the results of the Trump–Zelensky talks in New York and whether it will be possible to agree on an energy ceasefire in Ukraine before the start of winter.

The energy ceasefire is in question

An expanded U.S. delegation attended the talks with the U.S. president, including negotiators Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles.

The Ukrainian delegation included Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Budanov, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, head of the presidential faction in parliament Davyd Arakhamia, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov, and, as usual, Deputy Head of the OP Pavlo Palisa. At the previous meeting in Ankara, Trump mentioned Palisa personally and praised him, calling him his favorite soldier and a great hero of the war.

Photo – Office of the President of Ukraine

Stopping strikes on energy infrastructure was the most important topic raised at the talks. And this diplomatic track was started long before the Trump–Zelensky meeting itself.

Before an agreement on Ukraine was reached, Russia began to be “nudged” at the end of this summer. 31 August CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow, where he shared with the Russian security services real assessments of the situation on the battlefield, tried to “sober them up,” and reached out to Putin’s bunker so that the Kremlin would make concessions. 5 – 6 September Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner continued the diplomatic track with visits to Moscow and Kyiv, which primarily focused on attempts to de-escalate the war ahead of winter, in particular on a possible energy ceasefire.

Before the talks began, Trump made several sharp statements directed at Putin. When foreign journalists asked the U.S. president at the entrance to the UN headquarters what his message to Putin was, Trump did not hesitate to reply: “Put an end to the war.” The U.S. president also reminded that Russia has lost control of its oil refining industry:

Russia lost control of its oil refining industry because of the war with Ukraine. A significant number of its refineries were blown up and, at least temporarily, put out of operation. This senseless and endless war with Ukraine must stop. The whole world suffers because every month 25 thousand people die, mostly soldiers. What a shame!

Already after the closed-door talks ended, it became clear that Trump had rushed to announce last week an energy ceasefire. Talks on this topic are ongoing, but a final agreement was not reached. That is, as of today, no official limited ceasefire between Ukraine and the Russian Federation has been achieved. This was confirmed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, unlike Trump, commented on the negotiation process more realistically (and during the talks Trump assured that the war could be ended faster than many expect).

In addition, Rubio shared his own predictions about how the war will end, but did not specify under what conditions a peace treaty or ceasefire agreement might be signed:

For now there is no energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, but this war benefits neither side. This war must end sooner or later, and the war in Ukraine will end through an agreement reached by negotiations. It will not end through some crushing victory by one side or the other. It will end through an agreement.

Trump’s diesel ultimatum

A few weeks before the personal meeting, Trump began publicly pressuring Kyiv to stop strikes on Russian refineries. And, likely, the reason for this pressure was not Trump’s desire to help the Russians, but rising diesel prices in the United States ahead of the congressional elections.

Photo – Office of the President of Ukraine

Although this was caused primarily by the war against Iran, someone in the close circle convinced the American president that strikes by the Ukrainian Defense Forces on Russian refineries were supposedly a critical factor in this:

Well, that’s really a serious blow to the Russians. It also seriously affected the price of diesel fuel. Diesel prices have risen significantly, but we’ll talk more about that. But yes, it’s a very serious blow, certainly to Russia.

At the same time, President Zelensky noted that Trump did not issue any new ultimatums regarding strikes on refineries. The Ukrainian delegation probably, on the contrary, used Trump’s desire to stop these strikes to increase pressure on Putin. They explained to Trump: we are ready to stop strikes if Russia does so as well: “Do you want stabilization of global energy markets? Put pressure on Putin and force him to agree to an energy ceasefire. Then all this will end.”

Volodymyr Zelensky assured that the conversation with the U.S. president was about an energy ceasefire, not a unilateral ultimatum:

No, today there was no unilateral request for Ukraine to stop strikes. On the contrary we are talking about an energy ceasefire, if we cannot now force Putin to stop the war. I gave my personal opinion that Putin will tell everyone he is ready to end the war before the elections. And after it ends you will see attacks, and he will say it is because of Ukraine.

Patriot missile licenses

Another issue on the meeting’s agenda was licenses to produce missiles for Patriot systems.

At the NATO Summit in Ankara in July this year, Trump directly promised to allow Kyiv to produce such weapons on its own. At the same time, it later became clear that the decision had not yet been made or had been made but they were not ready to implement it.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, U.S. defense giants and companies that receive the largest share of U.S. budget contracts, apparently began to fear competition from Ukraine.

Photo – Office of the President of Ukraine

According to media reports, representatives of the corporations opposed it because they feared that Ukraine could produce these missiles faster than they could and at lower cost. Afterwards Trump came up with another idea: let Ukraine produce older versions of PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles. This plan was likely discussed in New York. Trump is still open to it, so essentially it remains to resolve bureaucratic issues and “calm down” the American defense magnates.

The CIA keeps a finger on the pulse

A real surprise of this diplomatic visit was another meeting that was not previously announced. 21 September President Volodymyr Zelensky met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe at Shannon Airport in Ireland. Reuters sources reported that both sides’ planes were refueling, and it was at that time that the communication took place. Zelensky was en route to New York, and Ratcliffe was returning to the U.S. after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Obviously, such coincidences do not just happen, and Ratcliffe’s plane could have refueled at another European aviation hub or a U.S. military base. The meeting was planned.

The CIA director (a large profile of Ratcliffe can be read on the 24 Channel), likely shared details of his visit to Moscow 31 August and told Volodymyr Zelensky “exclusive details” from the fields. In addition, the meeting coincided with media reports that Ratcliffe may play a larger role in the negotiation process regarding Ukraine.

Photo – Office of the President of Ukraine

It is clear that the CIA director will not completely replace the roles of negotiators Witkoff and Kushner, who were present at the New York meeting. At the same time, the head of the CIA has long been engaged in an institutional struggle with both “diplomats.” Ratcliffe and other members of the pro‑Ukraine wing in the White House are dissatisfied with how Witkoff and Kushner deal with the Russians and how they “curry favor” with them.

Recall that in November last year someone leaked to the American media a recording of a phone conversation between Steve Witkoff and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov, which was quite compromising (in fact Trump’s emissary was instructing his Russian counterpart how to get the most benefit from talks with Trump).

Then Steve advised Yuri on how best to approach the American president and advance pro‑Russian terms for peace in Ukraine. The leaked recording, of course, did not lead to personnel decisions in the White House, but at least shed light on the nature of Witkoff’s personal conversations with the Russians and publicly damaged the realtor’s image. Of course, it is difficult to say exactly who intercepted that conversation, but not many intelligence services in the world have such capabilities. It is also unlikely that European intelligence services would take such a step, risking already difficult relations with the Americans.

So, an energy ceasefire in Ukraine is still far off: negotiations continue, and it is still unclear whether the U.S. is ready to put pressure on the Kremlin, including to apply the Graham–Blumenthal law (which Trump threatened from the UN General Assembly podium 22 September) to force Putin to make concessions.

Ukraine has its own “cards,” but U.S. help would certainly not hurt us / Photo – social media

Few in the world can say whether the dictator will agree to such a step and whether he can give up his “card” of missile terror against civilians. Likely, the Americans themselves are not yet sure. We hope that at least a “red line” can be drawn and strikes on retail warehouses, both food and medical, including postal company hubs, can be stopped. A ceasefire at sea is also necessary so that Ukraine can again export grain to replenish the state budget.

Instead, the CIA is beginning to play a larger role in the negotiations and is opening its own closed-door communication channel. Even the CIA director John Ratcliffe’s indirect role in this process will contribute to a more realistic approach by Trump toward Putin and prevent the “diplomat‑realtors,” who talk about win‑win formulas, from bargaining away all of Ukraine in a bad peace with the Kremlin. The CIA can clearly balance Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine (by providing him with real intelligence on Russia and Putin) and help achieve constructive and realistic agreements on energy, food, and maritime ceasefires ahead of winter.