No joint statement after Zelenskyy, US envoy talks – DW – 02/20/2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine did not give a press conference or any public statements following their meeting in Kyiv.

“At the request of the American side, the format of the meeting provides for protocol filming and does not include statements or questions,” Zelenskyy’s spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Kellogg met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Chairperson of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

The United States opposes labeling Russia an aggressor in a G7 statement on the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported, citing five Western officials familiar with the matter.

The participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a virtual G7 summit on Monday has also not yet been agreed upon, the officials said.

US envoys have objected to the phrase “Russian aggression” and similar descriptions used by G7 leaders since 2022 to describe the conflict, the Western officials said.

The world’s leading economies have traditionally issued a statement of support on February 24, the day the full-scale invasion began three years ago.

The disagreement comes after US President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for the war, described Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections,” and suggested that Russia should be invited back into the G7.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call after US President Donald Trump claimed the Ukrainian president was “a dictator without elections.”

In the call, the UK prime minister gave Zelensky his support “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader.”

Starmer also said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two,” according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Zelenskyy was elected president of Ukraine in May 2019. Elections in Ukraine were previously scheduled for 2024 but were not held due to martial law.

A day after a heated exchange between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House urged Kyiv to rein in criticism and quickly sign a minerals deal pushed by Trump.

“They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said in an interview with Fox News.

The pushback from Ukraine on the mineral deal and how Trump is conducting peace talks is simply unacceptable, Waltz said, given everything the United States has done for Ukraine.

However, Waltz said that US differences with Ukraine were not irreconcilable, saying, “The president also said how much he loves the Ukrainian people.”

Waltz also denied that US allies and Ukraine were not consulted in Trump’s push to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“There’s a term for this in diplomacy. It’s called shuttle diplomacy, because bringing everybody to the table at once just hasn’t worked in the past,” he said.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Zelenskyy had assured him that Ukraine would sign a $500 billion (€478.5 billion) deal to transfer rights to Ukrainian minerals, but hadn’t signed it yet, Bloomberg News reported.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he discussed ways to achieve a just and lasting peace with US special envoy Keith Kellogg during the latter’s visit to Ukraine.

“I affirmed Ukraine’s willingness to achieve peace through strength and our vision for the necessary steps,” Sybiha wrote on X.

He also reiterated that Ukraine’s security and the transatlantic security are indivisible.

Kellogg arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday and is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.

For the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are scheduled to travel to Kyiv.

“Monday, February 24, marks the third anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I have decided to be in Kyiv for that occasion, with Ursula von der Leyen to reaffirm our support to the heroic Ukrainian people and to the democratically elected president Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” Costa wrote on X.

By pointing out that Zelenskyy was democratically elected, Costa sent a clear message to US President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday called Zelenskyy a “dictator” who lacked democratic legitimacy.

Earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on X that he plans to travel to Ukraine on Monday to support Zelenskyy and Ukrainian democracy.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Moscow soon for talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, hailing Russian-Chinese relations as an increasingly important factor in stabilizing the international situation.

“We have agreed on your visit to Moscow. So our next contact will already be in the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said after talks with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting in South Africa.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made headlines before the two-day gathering began by canceling his participation. The US will instead be represented by an embassy diplomat according to the State Department.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will also not attend the G20, according to the German Foreign Ministry.

The head of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency, Kyrylo Budanov, said he believes a ceasefire in the war with Russia could happen this year.

“I think it is going to happen. There are most of the components for it to happen,” Budanov said in a YouTube interview with Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.

“How long it will be, how effective it will be — is another question,” he added.

Budanov gave no details. Ukrainian officials have largely dismissed the idea of a ceasefire, warning that it would only give Russia time to rearm and prepare for further aggression.

Russia launched 161 drones and a dozen missiles overnight, targeting gas infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region and hitting the electricity supply in the southern Odesa region for the second night in a row, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian military said it shot down 80 drones and 78 were “lost,” likely due to electronic countermeasures, adding that Russia also fired about 14 missiles targeting what it called “critical infrastructure” in Kharkiv.

“The purpose of these criminal attacks is to stop the production of gas needed to meet the domestic needs of citizens and central heating,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook.

Ukraine’s main gas production capacity, which supplies almost half of Ukraine’s gas needs, is located in the frontline regions of Kharkiv and neighboring Poltava.

Meanwhile, in the Odesa region, a “massive” drone strike injured one person and cut power to 5,000 residents, the prosecutors said. It also damaged an administrative and a residential building, as well as a private company’s storage facility, they added.

The Kremlin said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks about US President Donald Trump left much to be desired and that Zelenskyy’s approval rating was falling.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the rhetoric of Zelenskyy and many representatives of the Kyiv regime leaves much to be desired.”

“The fact that Zelenskyy’s rating is falling is an absolutely obvious trend,” Peskov said.

He added that the Kremlin “absolutely” agreed with Trump after the US president urged his Ukrainian counterpart to “move fast” to end the conflict in his country.

“We have also already mentioned that this position is more favorable for us than the previous administration and that here we absolutely agree with the American administration,” Peskov said.

He also added that that any British plan to send troops to Ukraine as part of a
potential peacekeeping mission would be unacceptable for Russia.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Donald Trump was trapped in a “disinformation bubble” and dismissed a false claim by the US president that his popularity rating was at 4%.

Russia has recaptured 64% of the territory taken by Ukraine in the Kursk border region since Kyiv’s offensive there last summer, according to a senior Russian military leader.

“More than 800 square kilometers (309 square miles) have been liberated, which is about 64% of the territory initially occupied by Ukraine,” Sergei Rudskoi, first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, told the Krasnaya Zvezda military newspaper.

According to Rudskoi, Ukraine still controls more than 400 square kilometers in Kursk.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said last week that Kyiv controlled around 500 square kilometers in Kursk.

Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said the bank is not part of talks on lifting sanctions or ending the freeze on Russia’s foreign currency reserves.

“The Central Bank does not take part in such negotiations; I am not aware of it,” she said when asked if the issue of sanctions was being discussed as part of a possible peace deal.

At the beginning of 2022, the Russian Central Bank held about $207 billion in euro assets, $67 billion (€64.2 billion) in US dollars, and $37 billion (€44.7 billion) in British pounds.

A Russian guided aerial bomb destroyed a residential building in Kherson city during an overnight attack, Ukrainian authorities reported on Thursday.

Visuals from the scene showed the entrance of a ten-story building completely destroyed, with damage extending to surrounding structures.

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, stated that at least six people were injured, including two 13-year-olds.

Additionally, overnight air strikes targeted the port city of Odessa, injuring one woman, according to local authorities. 

US President Donald Trump told journalists late on Wednesday that Russia holds “the cards” in negotiations for a settlement in Ukraine. 

“I think the Russians want to see the war end… But I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory, so they have the cards,” Trump said. 

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia has managed to take around 20% of Ukrainian territory in the eastern and southern parts of the country.   

Russia also annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in 2014, drawing international condemnation from the West. 

In response, Ukrainian forces occupy parts of Russia’s Kursk province, such as the town of Sudzha. This occupation is intended to be used as a bargaining chip for land during settlement negotiations with Russia.  

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated his support for Ukraine after Trump’s insults towards Zelenskyy. 

“Ukrainians have been fighting and dying not just to protect their sovereignty, their territorial integrity. They’re also fighting to protect the rules-based order that keeps us all safe around the world, and has, for close to 80 years now,” Trudeau said. 

“Canada and our allies are unequivocal on standing up against Vladimir Putin’s illegal, immoral, unjust violations of the international order,” Trudeau said.  

Trudeau’s apparent rebuke ot Trump comes amid tensions in the US-Canada relationship.

Trump has frequently called Canada “the 51st state” and referred to Trudeau as “governor” rather than prime minister. Trudeau has said that Trump’s annexation threat is a “real thing” due to Canada’s natural resources that the Trump administration wants.  

Trump has also threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, which would hurt the Canadian economy. Trudeau in return has pledged reciprocal tariffs on US goods.