Zelensky's Meeting with 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 portion of the talks lasted about 40 minutes.

24 The Channel analyzed the results of the Trump–Zelensky talks in New York and whether an energy ceasefire in Ukraine can be agreed before the start of winter.

The energy ceasefire 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, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles.

The Ukrainian delegation included Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybyha, head of the presidential faction in parliament David Arakhamia, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov, and, as usual, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Pavlo Palisa. At the previous meeting in Ankara, Trump personally mentioned and praised Palisa, even 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. This diplomatic track was launched well before the meeting between Trump and Zelensky.

Before an agreement on Ukraine was concluded, Russia began to be “encouraged” at the end of this summer. 31 in August CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow, where he shared with Russian intelligence services realistic assessments of the situation on the battlefield, tried to "sober them up," and to reach the Putin bunker so that the Kremlin would make concessions. 5 – 6 in September Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner continued the diplomatic track with visits to Moscow and Kyiv, which focused primarily 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 toward Putin. When foreign journalists asked the U.S. president at the entrance to the U.N. headquarters what his message to Putin was, Trump, without hesitation, replied: "Put an end to the war." The U.S. president also reminded that Russia had lost control of its oil refining industry:

Russia has lost control of its oil refining industry because of the war with Ukraine. A significant number of its refineries have been blown up and, at least temporarily, put out of operation. This senseless and endless war with Ukraine needs to stop. The whole world is suffering because every month 25 thousand people die, mostly soldiers. What a disgrace!

Already after the closed-door talks ended, it became clear that Trump had been premature in announcing last week an energy ceasefire. Talks on this topic are ongoing, but no final agreement was reached. That is, as of today, no official limited ceasefire between Ukraine and the Russian Federation has been achieved. This was also confirmed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, unlike Trump, commented more realistically on the negotiation process (and during the talks Trump insisted the war could be ended faster than many expect).

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

There is currently 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 by an agreement reached through negotiations. It will not end because of some crushing victory by one side or the other. It will end because of a deal.

Trump's diesel ultimatum

A few weeks before the personal meeting, Trump began publicly pressing Kyiv to stop strikes on Russian refineries. And likely the reason for this pressure was not a desire on Trump's part 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 Ukraine’s Defense Forces on Russian refineries were allegedly a critical factor:

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

At the same time, President Zelensky noted that Trump did not "lay down" any new ultimatums regarding strikes on refineries. The Ukrainian delegation likely 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 the same: “Do you want stabilization of global energy markets? Put pressure on Putin and force him to agree to an energy ceasefire. Then this will all 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 request in a unilateral manner 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 said 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 licenses

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

At the NATO Summit in Ankara in July of this year, Trump directly promised to allow Kyiv to produce such weapons on its own. Later it became clear that a decision had not yet been made or had been made but was not ready to be implemented.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, U.S. arms giants and companies that receive the largest orders from the American budget, apparently began to fear competition from Ukraine.

Photo – Office of the President of Ukraine

According to media, representatives of the corporations opposed it because they feared Ukraine could produce these missiles faster than them and for less money. Afterwards Trump came up with another idea: allow Ukraine to produce older versions of PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles. This plan was likely discussed in New York. Trump remains open to it, so effectively there remain bureaucratic issues to resolve and to "calm" the American arms magnates.

The CIA keeps a finger on the pulse

A real surprise of this diplomatic visit was another meeting that had not been previously announced. 21 in September President Volodymyr Zelensky met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe at Shannon Airport in Ireland. Reuters sources reported that both parties' planes were refueling, and it was at that time that communication took place. Zelensky was en route to New York, and Ratcliffe was returning to the U.S. after 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 long profile on Ratcliffe can be read on the 24 Channel), likely shared details of his August visit to Moscow 31 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 role 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 conducting an institutional struggle with both "diplomats." Ratcliffe and other members of the pro-Ukrainian wing in the White House are dissatisfied with how Witkoff and Kushner conduct business with the Russians and how they "curry favor" with them.

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

At that time, Steve advised Yuri on how best to approach the American president and to 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 undermined 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 agencies would take such a step, risking damaging already difficult relations with the Americans.

So, an energy ceasefire in Ukraine is still a long way off: negotiations continue, and it remains unclear whether the U.S. is ready to pressure the Kremlin, in particular to apply the Graham–Blumenthal Act (which Trump threatened from the U.N. General Assembly podium 22 in September), to force Putin to make concessions.

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

Few in the world can say whether the dictator will agree to such a step or give up his "card" of missile terror against civilians. Likely the Americans themselves are not yet certain. We hope that at least a "red line" can be drawn and that 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 once again export grain to replenish the state budget.

The CIA, meanwhile, is beginning to play a larger role in negotiations and is opening its own channel of communication behind closed doors. Even the CIA director John Ratcliffe’s sideline role in this process will encourage a more realistic approach from Trump toward Putin and prevent the "realtor-diplomats" who speak of win-win formulas from bargaining away all of Ukraine by agreeing to a bad peace in 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.