Andriy Yermak, the right-hand man to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, invited special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff to visit Ukraine during a meeting in New York Friday — the first time the US diplomat met with high-ranking Kyiv officials in person as part of the Trump administration’s drive to end the 42-month-old Russia-Ukraine war.
Yermak and Ukraine First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergiy Kyslytsya met with Witkoff “to push forward real diplomacy and ensure the implementation of all the agreements reached at the Washington summit,” the former said in a post to X on Friday morning.
A White House official confirmed the meeting took place, but provided no additional details.
The sitdown came two days after Russia launched its second-largest attack on Kyiv in a single night, targeting Ukraine’s capital city with both missiles and drones.
“At the start of the meeting, I briefed Steve Witkoff on the war crimes Russia commits daily against our cities and communities in Ukraine,” Yermak said. “In particular, I spoke about the massive missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv that claimed the lives of 23 people, including four children.
“Unfortunately, Russia is failing to fulfill anything necessary to end the war and is clearly dragging out the hostilities,” he added.
Yermak — whose role in Ukraine’s government is similar to that of President Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles — went on to say that Kyiv “welcomes all peace initiatives put forward by the United States,” but noted that “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,” he added. “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.”
Kyslytsya chimed in that the meeting “took place in a constructive spirit and with a sense of genuine desire to find workable solutions for the implementation of the agreements between the presidents of Ukraine … and the United States in Washington on Aug. 18.”
The Trump administration has been represented in Ukraine by special envoy Keith Kellogg, with Witkoff handling negotiations with Russia. The 68-year-old has visited Moscow five times since Trump took office Jan. 20.
Kellogg just concluded his third visit to Ukraine on Monday.
The Ukrainians sat down with Witkoff while they were in New York to mark the listing of telecom giant Kyivstar — on the NASDAQ exchange.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko also came to the US for the event, but did not participate in the Witkoff meeting.
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