JAKARTA - The fate of Ukraine, which feels marginalized amid the United States-Russia envoy negotiations, is still a question mark, aka unclear. Ukraine feels left out because it is not involved in negotiations to end the Russian-Ukraine war which has entered three years.
United States (US) President Donald Trump's envoy for the Ukraine conflict met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Thursday, February 20.
However, there has been no immediate statement regarding whether their negotiations have helped smooth the unprecedented rift between the two countries that used to be strong allies.
Zelenskiy previously made a tone of peace after accusing Trump of repeating Russia's disinformation of respns against US president's accusations of Ukraine starting a three-year war with Russia.
Trump further referred to Zelenskiy as a "dictator" who must act quickly or his country will lose.
Trump, who has only served for a month, has pushed for a quick deal to come to an end to the war and has alarmed Washington allies in Europe by not involving them and Ukraine in initial negotiations with Russia.
His vice president, JD Vance, said on Thursday he believed the conflict was imminent and no one could stop the war without speaking to Russia.
Meanwhile, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told a White House press conference insulting Zelenskiy it was unacceptable and that the Ukrainian president needed to return to the negotiating table and discuss the deal previously made to give the United States access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
Trump's envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday. He insisted he was present in Ukraine to listen.
Reported by Reuters on Friday, February 21, after the meeting, Zelenskiy wrote on X he had a detailed and productive conversation with Kellogg about prisoners of war, effective security guarantees that would be part of the peace agreement, and the battlefield situation.
However, there are few additional details available, and a joint press conference is planned to be canceled at US request, the Zelenskiy office said.
Trump is trying to rebuild relations with Russia and also invest in Ukraine's mineral resources that are important to the energy transition. Ukraine rejected the US's initial plan because it did not include security guarantees.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration was considering submitting a simplified mineral deal to Zelinskiy, although the Ukrainian president did not mention a revision of the agreement in his statement on social media.
The possibility of a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will depend heavily on whether we can make progress in ending the war in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
"Generally you don't hold meetings like this until you know the results or progress achieved," Rubio told journalist Catherine Herridge in an interview broadcast on X.
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