Ukraine’s negotiating delegation will travel to the United States this week. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this on Thursday, 8 October, as reported by Radio Svoboda. According to the report, Zelenskyy spoke to journalists in the town of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, where he and UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband commemorated the victims of a Russian missile attack.
“Of course we want to focus on the negotiating track, because from our point of view the US should increase the intensity – with sanctions steps and other measures, with financial assistance and separate assistance for Ukraine’s air defence – and with such steps show Putin that he must sit down at the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy said, according to Radio Svoboda.
What the delegation is meant to achieve
Zelenskyy did not name the delegation’s exact composition. What is clear, however, is who leads the negotiating track on the Ukrainian side: the head of the delegation is Rustem Umerov, who was appointed head of the foreign intelligence service in July and was previously secretary of the National Security and Defence Council. According to the news agency LIGA.net, which reported on a session on 4 August, the team also includes the head of the Presidential Office, Kyrylo Budanov, the parliamentary group leader of the presidential party “Servant of the People”, Davyd Arakhamia, and the first deputy head of the Presidential Office and diplomat Serhiy Kyslytsia.
Umerov and the delegation had at that time informed Zelenskyy about the state of the negotiations, LIGA.net writes. The discussion covered coordination with the US, the progress of the talks and “further steps to strengthen Ukraine’s positions”. The president said at the time that Ukraine was ready for all formats of talks and expected US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US special envoy for peace Jared Kushner to become active in August.
No trilateral talks since the winter
According to LIGA.net, no trilateral negotiations involving Russia have taken place since the winter – since the start of the war between the US and Israel against Iran. Despite the successes of Ukraine’s defence forces in long-range attacks, Moscow continues to refuse peace, the report said.
As early as 11 September, Zelenskyy had expressed the expectation that initial results of the negotiating process could be available by the end of September. “As for Russia – when they hear that we are conducting negotiations with Europeans, Canadians or Americans, they try to intensify their attacks on us. Simply to torpedo any negotiation, to destroy any dialogue. But we believe in peace and will move in that direction. There is only one way to end this war; there is no other,” Zelenskyy said at the time, according to Interfax-Ukraine, at a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. He hoped to meet the American team in New York at the end of September; his national security advisers were in daily contact with the US team to prepare a possible trilateral meeting.
Whether these expectations materialised is not clear from the available sources. The now-announced trip to the US is the next concrete step on the negotiating path.
For people in Germany, the negotiating track has immediate significance: should an understanding be reached, questions of security guarantees, reconstruction aid and the status of the roughly one million Ukrainian refugees in Germany could also be reordered. As long as the talks stall, the existing arrangements – from residence permits to benefits – are likely to remain in place for the time being. New US commitments on air defence and financial assistance, as Zelenskyy is demanding, would also change the pressure on European partners to bear their share of the support.
What happens next depends on the talks in Washington. Zelenskyy did not name concrete dates or results. According to him, the delegation is travelling this week – a timetable for further meetings with US representatives or for a possible trilateral format is not apparent from the sources.
