Zelensky pushes for Witkoff, Kushner Kyiv visit within two weeks
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- Zelensky told CBS's "Face the Nation" he hopes Witkoff and Kushner will visit Kyiv within two weeks, citing his negotiating team's contacts indicating they are "ready to come to Ukraine and to speak"
- Zelensky said U.S. focus on Iran negotiations has created "pauses" in Ukraine's diplomatic track, calling the Middle East a U.S. "priority" and conditioning any Kyiv visit on that broader schedule
- Zelensky insisted U.S. envoys have visited Moscow several times but never Kyiv, saying "if they want to go this time to Moscow, they have to come to Kyiv and then go to Moscow"
- Zelensky said the best outcome is a four-party table — U.S., Ukraine, Europe, and Russia — with a bilateral Zelensky-Putin meeting as an alternative, adding that more sanctions and pressure are needed to bring Russia to dialogue
- Zelensky warned, in a Friday-recorded interview released Sunday, that Ukraine was bracing for a major Russian attack within 48 hours, crediting shared U.S. and European intelligence for visibility on Russian preparations
- Zelensky called Ukrainian drone strikes on the Saratov oil refinery a "significant achievement" on X, as Moscow claimed a Ukrainian drone attacked the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Why it matters: With U.S. envoys repeatedly traveling to Moscow but never Kyiv, Zelensky is publicly staking a precondition on any future Russia visit and pressing for in-person engagement on Ukrainian soil — a demand made more urgent by his warning of an imminent large-scale Russian attack and by the diplomatic bandwidth now consumed by the U.S.-Iran track.
