Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had spoken with US President's special envoy Stephen Witkoff and the American leader's son-in-law, entrepreneur Jared Kushner.
“Today I had a very good conversation with President Trump's special envoy Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner“, Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel.
“We discussed some important details of the work. There are good ideas that could work for a joint result and lasting peace. I hope that our Christmas agreements and the ideas we discussed today will be useful.“
He did not disclose the content of these “ideas“, but added that Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Khnatov, who recently returned from negotiations in the United States, were present during the conversation, as were Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha, his deputy Serhiy Kyslyta, and Zelensky's office officials Igor Brusylo and Oleksandr Bevz.
Zelensky released a video message in which he said that his conversation with Witkoff and Kushner lasted almost an hour. He said that new ideas related to formats, meetings and timing had emerged. “Rustem Umerov will speak again with the American team today. It is important that we can organize what we discussed during the day. And some documents are already ready. I see that some documents are almost completely ready. Of course, we still have to work on sensitive issues. But together with the American team, we understand how to ensure all this. The coming weeks can also be intense,“ he said.
On December 24, Zelensky presented to journalists a 20-point plan that Ukraine had discussed during the negotiations in the United States. It includes fixing the number of servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at 800,000 in peacetime; the status of Ukraine without nuclear weapons; security guarantees for Kiev, modeled on Article 5 of the NATO Treaty; Ukraine's accession to the EU at a certain point; the introduction of educational programs in Ukrainian schools that promote tolerance for different cultures; freedom of navigation on the Dnieper River with the demilitarization of the Kinburn Spit; an exchange of prisoners on the formula “all for all”; and holding presidential elections in Ukraine.
The agreement also contains provisions on territorial issues and the Zaporizhzhia NPP, but the US and Ukraine have not reached a compromise on these issues.