Head of Ukrainian President's Office Yermak shares details of talks with Trump's envoy Witkoff in New York
The Ukrainian delegation held talks with Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East, for which they arrived in the United States.
Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, noted that he spoke with Witkoff and First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia in New York.
"The key priority is to push forward real diplomacy and ensure the implementation of all the agreements reached at the Washington summit. We are coordinating our efforts," the official saidon X.
Yermak noted that he had told Trump's special representative about Russia's ongoing war crimes against Ukraine, including the latest large-scale attack on Kyiv, which killed 23 people.
Together with the First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, @SergiyKyslytsya, I held a meeting in New York with the Special Envoy of U.S. President @POTUS, @SteveWitkoff.
– Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) August 29, 2025
The key priority is to push forward real diplomacy and ensure the implementation of all the… pic.twitter.com/38lluDmCk6
The head of the Office of the President emphasised that Russia is not taking any of the steps that could end the war and is, on the contrary, prolonging it.
"Ukraine welcomes all peace initiatives put forward by the United States. But unfortunately, each of them is being stalled by Russia. We are open to direct negotiations at the leaders’ level and ready to discuss the broadest spectrum of issues. We believe that global pressure is needed to ensure Russia is genuinely ready to move toward peace and, in particular, to hold critically important leaders’ meetings for that purpose."
Yermak added that he had invited Witkoff to come to Ukraine in the near future.
On 22 August, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Vladimir Putin would meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy only after the "summit programme" was prepared, and there were no such plans at the moment.
On 29 August, the Kremlin reiterated that it did not object to the meeting as such, but after it was prepared "at the expert level".
Media reports indicate that US President Donald Trump intends to leave it to Russia and Ukraine to organise a meeting between their leaders and will thus withdraw from the talks for now.