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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he spoke with U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about accelerating efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine, as he separately hosted the U.S. Ambassador to NATO in Kyiv to advance defense production deals with Washington.
In a post to Telegram, Zelenskyy described the exchange with the two American envoys as "a good and important conversation," centered on how to "step up diplomacy and bring peace closer." He did not specify whether the conversation took place by phone or in person. The two sides agreed to remain in close contact and to continue working through the issues discussed, though Zelenskyy offered no further details on the substance of those talks.
The Ukrainian president also expressed personal gratitude to both men for their efforts and thanked President Donald Trump and the American public for their continued support of Ukraine.
Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy who has taken on Ukraine in his portfolio, and Kushner, the president's son-in-law and informal senior adviser, have served as the White House's primary intermediaries in shuttle diplomacy between Kyiv and Moscow. Peace negotiations under their stewardship have faced repeated interruptions, most recently as Washington's attention shifted toward Iran following a U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched earlier this year.
Wednesday's call signals a renewed push to revive diplomatic momentum. It comes at a particularly intense moment on the battlefield, with Russia continuing its barrage of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities.
On the same day, Zelenskyy welcomed U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker to Kyiv, joined by NATO Special Mission Commander Lieutenant General Curtis Buzzard, to discuss a set of pressing defense cooperation issues. Chief among them was the implementation of a license permitting Ukraine to produce Patriot air defense interceptors, a decision Trump announced at the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month during a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy.
The talks also covered the supply of additional Patriot interceptors under NATO's Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List framework and progress on a bilateral drone production agreement currently being developed by teams from both countries. Zelenskyy's office said those arrangements were expected to be finalized in the near future.
The Patriot system's PAC-3 interceptor remains one of the only weapons capable of reliably downing ballistic missiles of the type Russia has been deploying against Ukrainian cities. Ukraine has faced a critical shortage of these interceptors, a gap that has grown since U.S. stocks were drawn on during military operations against Iran.
Wednesday's developments underscored the dual track Ukraine is navigating: pursuing ceasefire diplomacy through Washington while simultaneously pressing for the military capacity to defend itself if those talks stall or collapse. Zelenskyy has been consistent in insisting that credible security arrangements, including robust air defenses, must accompany any eventual peace framework.
No timeline was given for a follow-up meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, and no details were released regarding Russia's posture in the ongoing diplomatic process.
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