President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday, Sept. 7, that Ukraine was planning its “next steps” following three rounds of negotiations in Kyiv with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
In a Telegram post, Zelensky said he had met with Ukraine’s negotiating team to review the talks and prepare further meetings and communications.
Representatives of the E3 – France, the UK and Germany – also participated in the negotiations. Zelensky said he additionally held a separate one-on-one conversation with Witkoff and Kushner on Sunday after the meetings concluded.
“The most important thing is to continue working actively and jointly so that diplomacy can continue,” Zelensky said.
“Ukrainian proposals will always be constructive”
According to Zelensky, the talks focused on Ukraine’s air defense needs, technological cooperation with its allies and a support package required ahead of winter.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s allies understood which measures could be effective and what assistance needed to be provided before winter, when Russia is expected to intensify attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
“We are coordinating further steps. We are preparing the next meetings and communications,” he said.
Zelensky concluded by saying that Ukraine’s proposals “will always be” constructive.
Little progress in US-led talks
Witkoff and Kushner visited Kyiv on Sunday, Sept. 6, after holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow a day earlier.
The US envoys said they hoped another round of Washington-mediated negotiations between Ukraine and Russia could be announced soon, according to Reuters.
Officials have been tight-lipped about the terms discussed behind closed doors in Kyiv and Moscow, though media reports suggest they centered on Washington’s previous peace proposals with minor changes.
Zelensky previously said Ukraine was ready to resume trilateral negotiations involving Kyiv, Washington and Moscow. Moscow also signaled readiness for trilateral talks but did not provide specifics on how it could take place.
The proposed trilateral meetings were a mainstay of previous peace talks that stretched from 2025 into early 2026 but fizzled out amid the outbreak of the US war in Iran, with Moscow also insisting that Putin would only meet Zelensky in Moscow, terms that Kyiv called non-starters.