Talks with US envoys 'very substantive': Zelensky

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were "very substantive".

The two sides discussed resuming negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, security and economic guarantees for Ukraine, and a winter support package, Zelensky told reporters at a briefing after the talks.

"We are very much counting on both air defense and energy support, and we are counting on a serious volume and possibilities of using American LNG," he said.

Representatives from the United Kingdom, France and Germany joined the discussions in the third round, Zelensky said, adding the three sides had agreed to meet in the future to continue negotiations.

"We are counting on the support of our European partners if the war continues in winter — and this is how it appears at the moment," he said.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official told Agence France-Presse on Sunday that Witkoff and Kushner have brought new, "more effective" proposals.

While both Zelensky and the two US envoys had given upbeat assessments of the talks, neither announced any breakthroughs on ending the conflict.

However, the senior Ukrainian official told AFP: "It's not the same as it was before. This one now is more effective. They're still talking. This is actually the most important part."

Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Kyiv a day after they met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Sunday's visit to Kyiv was their first to the Ukrainian capital.

Witkoff told reporters that he and Kushner had made "significant progress" in Moscow and hoped that trilateral talks involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia would be announced soon.

Russia "does not rule out the resumption of the trilateral format, but it is too early to say anything about the venue or the exact dates at this stage", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

AGENCIES-XINHUA