Zelenskyy says US negotiators to visit Kyiv

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said preliminary dates have been set for US negotiators to visit Kyiv, with meetings also expected in Moscow, as Washington resumes efforts to end Russia’s invasion. The comments, delivered in Zelenskyy’s nightly video address and reported by The Guardian, came as Russian president Vladimir Putin told an economic forum there was a “chance” of reaching an agreement.

The two statements sketch a familiar rhythm in the war: diplomacy is floated in public while the battlefield and the economy keep scoring the real leverage. Putin, speaking to a business audience, framed a settlement as something “ultimately” for Russia and Ukraine to resolve, while thanking countries including the US and China for trying to help. Zelenskyy, for his part, stressed the importance of continued American activity—an acknowledgement that Ukraine’s ability to hold its position is still tied to outside money, munitions, and political attention.

Those external constraints were underlined by US president Donald Trump’s own messaging. In an interview with GB News, Trump said he wanted the war to end and believed it would, and he has talked publicly about a summit with Putin “when” the Kremlin is ready for a peace deal, according to The Guardian’s account. At the same time, Trump has said he would ask European nations to repay the US for military aid and munitions previously sent to Ukraine, and he appeared to signal a halt in sales of munitions to allied nations before later posting that the US was ramping up production, stockpiling, and would resume sales.

On the ground, both sides continued to trade strikes that make a negotiated pause harder to sell domestically. Officials said a Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Belgorod border region killed four people, including two medical personnel, and injured three others. Separately, the head of Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region said three civilians died in drone strikes across three districts.

Near Kyiv, Russian drones struck and damaged a Coca-Cola plant close to the town of Brovary, officials said, with no injuries reported. Zelenskyy described the strike as a deliberate signal to America that an “American facility” is within Russia’s target set even while talk of diplomacy returns.

The US envoy’s itinerary is still described only in broad terms, but the war’s day-to-day accounting is already being kept in factories, stockpiles, and the kinds of civilian sites that end up on strike lists.