US envoy hails ‘progress’ as Donald Trump meets Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the World Economic Forum.
United States envoy Steve Witkoff says “a lot of progress” has been made in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and that negotiations are down to one last issue, as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump held what both described as positive talks.
“I think we’ve got it down to one issue, and we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solvable,” Witkoff told an audience at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss city of Davos on Thursday.
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“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” he said.
The US envoy said he and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would travel later in the day to the Russian capital, Moscow, where the Kremlin has said Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet Witkoff.
The US envoy said he and Kushner would not stay in Moscow overnight but instead fly on to Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, where talks would continue in “military to military” working groups. According to Zelenskyy, the UAE talks – spanning Friday and Saturday – will include the first trilateral meetings between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Trump, Zelenskyy meet in Davos
Meanwhile, Trump held what he called a “very good” meeting with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the WEF. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Trump said his message to Putin is that the war in Ukraine has to end.
Zelenskyy, for his part, described the meeting with Trump as “productive and substantive”.
“The documents are now even better prepared,” added Zelenskyy, who previously said he would only travel to Davos if there were the opportunity to sign an agreement with Trump on resolving the nearly four-year war, including with security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine.
Addressing the WEF after his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy made the case for Putin to face international prosecution and criticised European allies for failing to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s defence.
“This is the fourth year of the biggest war in Europe since World War II, and the man who started it is not only free, but he is fighting for his frozen money in Europe,” said Zelenskyy.
‘Keep our eyes on the ball of Ukraine’
While it was unclear what the last-remaining sticking point referenced by Witkoff was, Zelenskyy said in December that the two main issues were the long-term fate of territory captured by Russia and areas still under Kyiv’s control that Moscow is demanding, and who gets control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, under Russian occupation in southern Ukraine.
Trump made an oft-repeated claim on Wednesday that Putin and Zelenskyy were close to a deal. “I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid – that goes for both of them,” he said after delivering a speech to the annual meeting of global elites.
The US has held talks separately with Russia, Ukraine and European leaders on various drafts of a plan for ending the war, but no deal has yet been reached despite Trump’s repeated promises to clinch one.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised Trump’s efforts to end the war but said Ukraine still needs military help as it continues to come under Russian missile and drone attacks.
“What we need is to keep our eyes on the ball of Ukraine. Let’s not drop that ball. And that means. Yes, great, peace talks. Fantastic. We will do everything to conclude them successfully, but that will not happen tomorrow,” he said.
The talks come as Russian attacks this week have left most of the Ukrainian capital without electricity, with residents of 3,000 buildings in Kyiv without heat in sub-zero temperatures.
Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said a Russian overnight drone attack struck a residential building, killing a 17-year-old.