Geneva talks tomorrow/ Zelensky holds phone conversation with Trump

2026-02-25 22:25:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he had a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump. In a post on social media, Zelensky said that the call, which comes a day before the US-Ukraine meeting in Geneva, was also attended by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The Ukrainian president announced that the discussions were based on the issues that the American and Ukrainian representatives will address tomorrow. They also discussed preparations for the upcoming Russia-US-Ukraine summit in early March.

"I just spoke with President Donald J. Trump. President Trump's envoys - Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner - were also on the call. Our teams are working intensively and I thanked them for all their work and for their active involvement in the negotiations and efforts to end the war.

We also greatly appreciate the PURL initiative. This winter has been the most difficult for Ukraine, but the missiles for air defense systems that we buy from the US are helping us overcome all these challenges and protect lives.

"We discussed the issues that our representatives will address tomorrow in Geneva during the bilateral meeting, as well as preparations for the upcoming meeting of full negotiating teams in a trilateral format in early March. We expect that this meeting will create an opportunity to bring the talks to the level of leaders. President Trump supports this sequence of steps. This is the only way to resolve all complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war ," Zelensky's post said.

The Ukrainian leader has said he must now meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to resolve the most difficult issues in the talks. The talks, based on a US plan unveiled late last year, have been blocked largely over the fate of Donbas, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has been the epicenter of the fighting.

Russia is seeking full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and has threatened to take it by force if Kiev does not surrender to the negotiating table. But Ukraine has rejected the demand and signaled it will not sign a deal without security guarantees that prevent Russia from invading again. /CNA