Zelensky addresses direct talks with Russia in call to Witkoff, Kushner after strikes kill four
Four people were killed, including one pregnant woman, in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv and Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials reported.
The overnight missile and drone attacks injured an additional six people and damaged residential buildings and shops, the regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Telegram.
The latest strikes follow a series of large attacks from Russia this month, while Ukraine has increased its drone strikes on Russian oil facilities in Crimea, leading to Russian fuel shortages.
Overnight in Sevastopol, Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet claimed it repelled a Ukrainian drone attack, according to a statement from Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Zelensky speaks with Kushner, Witkoff on direct peace talks with Russia
Notably, on Monday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that he had a “very positive conversation” with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“I am grateful for the readiness to work as actively as possible already in the weeks to come to give a boost to diplomacy for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he wrote.
The talks with the US envoys followed Zelensky’s trip to London, where he met with British, French, and German leaders about finding an end to Ukraine’s war with Russia. Zelensky described the talks as “substantive” and added he was preparing for the upcoming G7 summit in France.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, along with Ukrainian officials, have been in discussions to meet in Kyiv, according to Reuters. It would mark the first official visit to Ukraine by the two envoys who previously traveled to Moscow for talks with Russia in January.
The US led peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have stalled since the US has been occupied with finding a solution to its war with Iran.
Zelensky’s proposition for in-person talks with Putin
Zelensky’s office also published an open letter last week to Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing in-person talks to end the over-four-year war. Putin quickly rebuffed his proposal.
“There are different people around Putin. Half of them want to continue this war and the other half want to stop it,” Zelensky said in an interview with the Guardian.
“Businessmen understand that the Russian economy is in a terrible situation.”
Putin, at an annual business forum in St. Petersburg, assured attendees that although Ukrainian strikes had caused damage, there was no real threat to Russia’s economy.
Zelensky’s open letter to Putin, meeting with Abramovich
Zelensky told Sky News that he met with Jewish Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in Kyiv, where Abramovich offered to deliver a message to the Kremlin on the prospects of peace talks.
“[Abramovich] wanted to give me the message that they [Russia] are ready to, that they want to understand what we are ready to do”, Zelensky said. The former Chelsea FC owner then offered Zelensky to take a reply “and give it to Putin.”
“I said the question is not about us. You are fighting against us on our territory,” he added. “I said to him about Donbas, it was the key message, I said we will not leave, and we will not go out of our territory. No, we will not give you a victory [in] such [a] way, and you will not get it.”
A Ukrainian official told Reuters that Zelensky published his open letter to Putin after he received no response to the message sent via Abramovich.
