Zelensky meets Witkoff and Kushner, vows diplomacy stays in motion

Zelensky met Witkoff and Kushner on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit, where he said preparations are underway for what he called further multilateral meetings. Writing on social media, he said flatly that diplomacy will remain active. He thanked the two US envoys for the intensive communication.

The Ukrainian president also made a concrete promise: prisoners will be released, and Kyiv is counting on the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war. He added that European representatives are being pulled into the process more aggressively so they can hold an equal seat at the negotiating table.

The encounter caps a busy stretch of shuttle diplomacy. According to Breaking The News, Witkoff and Kushner met Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier, a session that ran about two and a half hours, where the Russian president said Russia was ready for dialogue and floated a localized ceasefire in the Donbass city of Kostyantynivka.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Putin and Donald Trump are expected to pick up the Ukraine talks when they meet at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18 and 19. Zelensky, meanwhile, kept his own channels busy, thanking Poland's Donald Tusk a day earlier for backing Ukraine's independence and discussing fuel transport links ahead of winter.