Washington DC: US President Donald Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Tuesday (September 22). The meeting is expected to address short-term steps to reduce fighting between Russia and Ukraine and revive peace negotiations.
Reuters reported that Trump and Zelenskyy agreed to meet after talks between them over phone.
Describing the conversation as “important”, the Ukranian president later said it had created diplomatic momentum. There is diplomatic momentum,” he said in a post on X. The two leaaders will meet on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, where the US president is also scheduled to address world leaders. “I just spoke with President Trump. An important conversation, and we got through a lot. We agreed to meet in New York, and this meeting could change a lot.
The meeting is being arranged with help from Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, who also heads his country’s foreign intelligence service, according to Axios. He repeatedly urged his Ukrainian counterpart to stop the strikes, arguing that the attacks were affecting fuel supplies and pushing diesel prices up, according to Axios. A person familiar with the telephonic conversatio told the publication that “the word diesel came up many times during the call”. The Ukrainian president thanked his US counterpart for sending the two officials and said they had gone through details of the war and seen conditions in Ukraine themselves. We went through the key details thoroughly, and they saw the situation in Ukraine firsthand,” Zelenskyy said.
They are expected to discuss possible de-escalation measures, security arrangements and ways to bring the two sides back to negotiations. The scheduled Trump-Zelenskyy talks follow a recent visit to Kyiv by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “I thanked the President for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s visit to Kyiv.
