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Amid Russian attacks and corruption scandal, Zelensky intensifies diplomatic efforts to achieve peace

2025-11-30 11:04:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Amid Russian attacks and corruption scandal, Zelensky intensifies diplomatic

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is stepping up global efforts to reach a peace deal, sending a negotiating team to the United States and planning to visit Paris himself, at a time when his government is grappling with a corruption scandal and Russia is intensifying air strikes.

Zelensky said a negotiating team has been sent to the US as part of efforts for a "decent peace" and to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.

He said on November 29 that the delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, a former defense minister who is now secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and a member of Kiev's negotiating team.

A senior US official told news agencies that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Florida to meet with the Ukrainian delegation on November 30.

After the meeting in Florida, Witkoff is also expected to travel to Moscow next week, as part of efforts to finalize the controversial American proposal.

Meanwhile, French authorities announced that President Emmanuel Macron will host Zelensky in Paris on December 1 to discuss "the conditions for a just and lasting peace."

Kiev and its European allies - led by France, Britain and Germany - are aiming to draft an alternative or modified peace plan after Trump presented a 28-point proposal that critics claim is too biased in favor of Russia.

Zelensky did not comment on the planned visit to Paris, but Macron has been one of Kiev's strongest supporters in the fight against Russian aggression. Zelensky was also in Paris on November 17.

The initial 28-point version reflects the positions that Russia has held at least since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

This alarmed Ukrainian officials, and reportedly angered Zelensky, who then held bilateral talks with American officials.

The "refined" 19-point plan that emerged from the talks still leaves several key issues open, including the fate of part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, which the Kremlin is determined to occupy.

Other obstacles include the Kremlin's insistence that Ukraine be barred from NATO membership and a possible limit on the size of Kiev's army.

Chief of Staff resigns

The diplomatic activity comes after a turbulent week that culminated in the resignation of Andriy Yermaku, Zelensky's highly influential chief of staff, just hours after the country's Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Prosecutor's Office conducted searches at his office.

The raids were part of an investigation into a corruption scandal linked to suspected embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars intended for Ukraine's sensitive energy infrastructure.

Several influential people connected to Zelensky have been implicated in this scheme, although the president himself has not been directly involved.

Yermak has not been directly accused of any wrongdoing and said during the raids that investigators had been given "full access" to his apartment, adding that he was cooperating with authorities.

“Without Wasting a Day”

The diplomatic efforts also come as Russia has launched a series of major air strikes against Kiev and other parts of Ukraine, cutting off electricity to hundreds of thousands of people across the country, as temperatures have begun to drop sharply.

The attacks killed at least three people and injured dozens more, prompting Zelensky to repeat his call for additional defensive weapons to protect Ukrainian cities.

"We must work without wasting a single day to ensure that there are enough missiles for our air defense systems and that everything necessary for our defense and for pressure on Russia is in place," he said.

Ukraine has struck targets inside Russia that Kiev says are being used to support the Kremlin's war effort.

The Ukrainian military said it struck the Afipski oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region early on November 29, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in the Rostov region.

Meanwhile, sources told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service that two tankers of the so-called "shadow fleet" - the Cairo and the Virat - used by Russia to export oil while avoiding Western sanctions, were attacked by naval drones in the Black Sea.

"The modernized Sea Baby naval drones were successfully used against the ships," said the source, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak publicly about the operation. /REL