Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday announced a new peace delegation marked by the absence of his resigned adviser Andriy Yermak, who left his post on Friday amid a corruption scandal, and which will begin this weekend with a visit to the United States to discuss the current status of the negotiations.
Yermak, who had until now been the head of the negotiating team, gave his place to Rustam Umarov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and the team’s former “number two.” Omerov will be Yermak’s main deputy so far, Alexander Peeves.
The bulk of the delegation will consist of the head of the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Kirill Budanov, the Deputy Military Chief of the Ministry of Defense Vadim Skibitsky, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrey Hnatov and the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Oleg Ivashchenko.
This delegation is now traveling to the United States, to meet on Sunday in Florida with the US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and they will discuss the development of events, according to what the Ukrainian president confirmed.
The Ukrainian president said: “This Saturday, Rustam submitted a report with a clear mission: to outline the necessary steps to end the war quickly and decisively. Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way possible, and we hope that the results of the meetings in Geneva will be achieved in the United States. I look forward to the report of our delegation after its work this Sunday.”
Witkoff will lead a US delegation for talks in Russia next week.
Last week, the United States issued an ultimatum to Kiev to accept terms of the deal that appeared to favor Russia by Thanksgiving. The document ended with a watered-down version by hashing out the thorny issues after intense diplomatic activity in Geneva and under pressure from Kiev’s European allies.
The Europeans have been left out of the details of many aspects of the talks and only participate in bilateral talks when their contributions are absolutely necessary at this stage, such as outlining security guarantees with the United States.
While Washington touts progress in talks with Ukraine, it still faces the same obstacles as in previous rounds: what satisfies Ukraine is likely to be a deciding factor for Russia, and vice versa.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his demand for the Ukrainian army to withdraw from areas of the Donetsk region that Moscow was unable to control by force, an idea that Kiev has repeatedly rejected.