STRAINED RELATIONS
The US leader has accused his counterpart of not trying to resolve the conflict with Russia.
Trump said he was ready to meet Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China next month to discuss denuclearisation, adding that talks could also cover the Ukraine war – fuelling fears in Kyiv that it was being sidelined.
Zelenskyy insisted Tuesday that Kyiv needed to be represented at any meeting regarding Ukraine’s future.
“I don’t know what the trilateral meeting will be about between America and China, and Russia, it’s up to them. But of course, if the are issues about Ukraine, our future, it can be acceptable only when we are at the table of negotiations. It’s absolutely clear,” he said.
Zelenskyy stressed the need to find a solution quickly.
“Of course we are not losing this war,” he said when asked, “but we are losing people … and time”.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Witkoff was headed on to Russia.
“Steve Witkoff will fly tomorrow to St. Peterburg, where he will be meeting with Russian leadership and exchange ideas from this meeting and the proposals that have been worked on by European and American colleagues, and possibly pave the way for a meeting at leaders’ level,” he said.
“We hope that it will be possible to arrange a meeting in the very near future, allowing the American negotiators… Mr Witkoff, to brief President Putin on their contacts with both the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
