The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has gathered this Thursday in kyiv with the United States envoy for Europe and Ukraine, the diplomat and war veteran Keith Kellogg ,. In his last intervention on this event, in a message late on Wednesday, Zelenski said it is “crucial” that from his talk with Kellogg something “constructive.” “Together with the United States and Europe,” said the Ukrainian leader, “peace can be safer, and that is our goal.” The spokesman of President Ukraine Sergi Nikiforov has reported that there will be no joint press conference or communication on the meeting at the request of the US delegation.
The meeting with Trump’s envoy to the country, a pragmatic man and a good connoisseur of diplomacy in war, plans to temper the spirits between kyiv and Washington after the discrepancies arising from the approach of the new US government to Kremlin. To, among other things, talk about the war, but without Ukraine representation, a nonsense that bothered a lot in kyiv and in European Chancellors. Meanwhile, and given the change of course in US foreign policy to Ukraine, the European Union has turned to clothe Zelenski and reiterate its full support to the country invaded three years ago by Russian troops.
After his appointment with the Ukrainian leader, Kellogg will culminate two days of meetings in which he has been able to speak, among others, with members of the intelligence services and the Ukrainian army, with the head of the presidential cabinet, Andrii Yermak, a strong man of Zelenski , and with Foreign Minister Andrii Sibiha. “I have affirmed Ukraine’s will to achieve peace through force,” said Sibiha after his encounter with the American envoy, “and our vision of the necessary measures. I also reiterate that the security of Ukraine and the Atlantic are indivisible. ”
So far, Kellogg has remained cautious in his statements since he arrived on Wednesday morning at kyiv Central Station. After getting out of the car, he said he was in the Ukrainian capital to see, listen and thus be able to transmit the message later to Trump. “We have a lot of work to do to end this brutal war,” said the representative of the US government in a message on the X network, “but the US is committed to doing the difficult job that helps to forge a sustainable peace.” A constructive tone very different from that maintained against Zelenski in the last hours by Trump or his number two, Vice President JD Vance.
The crisis in the relations between Washington and kyiv arrived this Wednesday at their highest point after – the martial law that governs Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion prevents the celebration of elections. It was the second time in less than 24 hours that the Republican president suggested that the Ukrainian leader lacks legitimacy. In an intervention against the press on Tuesday, Trump even said that Ukraine had started hostilities. Before these words, Zelenski said that the US president lives in a “misinformation bubble.” Vance joined the pyre mounted by his leader and declared, in an interview with an American publication, that the words of the Ukrainian president were “shameful.” “This is not a good way to deal with President Trump,” said Vance.
“Let’s talk about percentages”
Beyond the words, one of the most thorny reasons between the two governments, and that Kellogg has on his agenda, is the possible agreement on the exploitation of Ukrainian minerals. Trump wants to seal that agreement, a kind of letter of thanks to Washington for the services provided in military aid in these three years of war. . “There is nothing clear, let’s talk about percentages,” said President Ukraine on Wednesday.
The Trump administration is allegedly pressing so that kyiv gives the United States mining concessions worth $ 500,000 million (478,297 million euros) in recognition of the help granted to resist Russian invasion. As the Reuters agency reported Thursday, Trump has in mind to conclude a simplified agreement in the short term to accelerate the process and discuss the detailed terms later. “I think I’m going to resurrect that agreement,” the US president said on Wednesday, “we will see what happens, but I will resurrect it, things will not do it very happy [a Zelenski]”.
Before the war escalation between Zelenski and Trump, Europe has reacted defending the Ukrainian leader, while launching a conciliatory message towards Washington. The European Commission has temporarily set aside its caution before the transatlantic barks of Donald Trump to make it clear that, for Europe, Zelenski is a “legitimate” president and not a “dictator”, as the US president has described. “President Zelenski was legitimately elected in free, fair and democratic elections. Ukraine is a democracy, Putin’s Russia is not, ”said a community spokesman on Thursday, stressing that it is the European position.
Although he did not want to comment on the origin of the information that Trump’s accusation would have fed, the spokesman has recalcked again, as all European and community leaders have been doing in the past days, which “there can be no solution for Ukraine Without the implication of Ukraine or the EU, “because, he has limited,” the security of Ukraine is the security of the European Union. “
Europe is expected to stage its alliance with Ukraine next Monday, the 24th, third anniversary of the large -scale invasion launched by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Among the European leaders who have confirmed their trip to kyiv are the presidents of the European Council, António Costa; The European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Spain, Pedro Sánchez. In addition, and to maintain the tuning with the US in the possible resolution of the conflict ,.
