Zelenskyy-Trump verbal clash has not disrupted Ukraine-US contacts, journalist reports
Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
Despite the exchange of sharp statements between Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump over the past week, diplomatic contacts between Ukraine and the US have not been interrupted, states Milan Lelich, head of the political section at RBC-Ukraine, in the TSE BAZA podcast.
"There is no such break in contacts as there was after the Oval Office scandal on February 28 last year, when everything was effectively suspended for a time - there is nothing like that now," Lelich said.
According to the journalist, throughout the past week, Ukrainian negotiators actively proposed holding another offline meeting with the US side somewhere in Europe.
"One of the interlocutors even said that there was an idea to try to bring the Americans into a constructive dialogue, for example, to discuss a drone deal with Ukraine. To somehow return the situation to a commercial track," the RBC-Ukraine journalist reported.
However, according to his sources, one of the two American negotiators, Steve Witkoff, fell ill last week, so ultimately, as is known, the negotiations took place by phone on Sunday evening Kyiv time.
Contacts with Witkoff and his partner Jared Kushner are expected to continue this week, but it is not yet known whether a personal meeting at the delegation level will take place, Lelich said.
Recalling the meeting of Ukrainian, European, and American negotiators in Miami on October 9, the journalist added, citing his own sources, that Kushner and Witkoff attempted to play "good cop, bad cop" there.
In particular, according to one of the interlocutors, Kushner tried to "toxic" the Ukrainians in front of the Europeans by criticizing them for failing to implement reforms, while Witkoff demonstrated constructiveness but also pushed for "closing a deal."
US-Russia diesel deal
The crisis in relations between Ukraine and the US arose because Washington reached a diesel deal with Moscow, which involves suspending some sanctions against Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called US leader Donald Trump's decision weak.
In turn, Trump stated that it was allegedly easier to "deal with" Russian leader Vladimir Putin than with Zelenskyy.
