Zelenskyy may visit US this week as Trump suggests ‘big progress’ made

Ukraine’s president could travel to the US this week for more substantial negotiations with Donald Trump following the US-Ukraine talks in Geneva on Sunday.

Ukraine’s president might go to Washington as early as this week to meet US President Donald Trump to discuss the plan which could put an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to several media reports citing Ukrainian and US officials familiar with the process.

Following the first phase of negotiations in Geneva over the weekend, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation would be back in Kyiv on Monday evening with a “full report”.

“Based on these reports, we will determine the next steps and the timing. We will continue coordinating with Europe and other partners around the world,” Zelenskyy said.

“We count on achieving the necessary results, and I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the US president asked in a post on his Truth Social platform, “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.”Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” Trump emphasised.

Both delegations, led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak respectively, praised the consultations in Switzerland as “productive”.

According to the joint US-Ukraine statement, an “updated and refined peace framework” has been drafted after the initial leaked 28-point peace plan reportedly prepared by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president’s top aide, Kirill Dmitriev, drew backlash over conditions that heavily favoured Moscow.

Both sides reiterated their “readiness to continue working together to secure a peace that ensures Ukraine’s security, stability, and reconstruction.”

“Final decisions under this framework will be made by the Presidents of Ukraine and the United States,” the statement said.

After the US-Russia draft framework was leaked last week, Trump gave Kyiv a Thursday deadline to agree to his brokered peace deal, stating it was “appropriate time”.“I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” Trump added.

Asked whether the Thanksgiving deadline still stands, Rubio said on Sunday evening in Geneva that the real goal is to get a deal “as soon as possible”.

Moscow slams EU’s counterproposal as ‘unconstructive’

While the US administration has been negotiating the possible framework with Ukraine, Russia engaged in a dialogue with Turkey.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a phone call on Monday to discuss what the Kremlin-affiliated media said was the “US plan” on Ukraine.

Putin reportedly praised the US-Russia draft framework, leaked last week, saying it is “in line with the discussions at the Russian-American summit in Alaska and, in principle, could form the basis for a final peaceful settlement.”

Russia’s president’s comments confirmed that Moscow’s position and maximalist demands remain unchanged.

Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov also said on Monday that the Kremlin is aware of the European counterproposal, which “appears unconstructive”.

“‘This morning we learned about the European plan, which at first glance is completely unconstructive and does not suit us,” Ushakov said.

Last week, Erdoğan met with Zelenskyy when the Ukrainian president visited Turkey to discuss the possibility of restarting negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

Russia and Ukraine officially held a handful of rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in the spring, but the process has stalled since July.

The meetings yielded little progress, with the only tangible result being agreements on large prisoner-of-war exchanges.

Last month, the US president said he believed that Turkey’s Erdoğan could play a role in ending the war in Ukraine, noting that he has contacts with both Zelenskyy and Putin./Euronews/