President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was set to meet with President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia in Kyiv on Thursday — a day after a public feud between the Ukrainian and American leaders threatened to derail diplomatic efforts toward peace talks.
The meeting with the envoy, Keith Kellogg, a retired U.S. general and longtime adviser to Mr. Trump on security matters, was to discuss paths to ending the war that would safeguard Ukraine’s interests. But whether Mr. Kellogg can persuade Mr. Trump to renew ties with the Ukrainian leader is unclear.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump labeled Mr. Zelensky a “dictator,” and the Ukrainian president accused him of echoing Russian propaganda. And there are concerns in Kyiv that Mr. Kellogg has been sidelined from the Trump administration’s negotiating team, since he was not part of the U.S. delegation that met with Russian officials this week to initiate peace talks.
Ukraine is wary of straining ties with Washington, its biggest ally, however, and Kyiv has suggested that the meeting will aim to stop the feud from escalating into an out-of-control dispute. “It is crucial for us that the meeting and our overall cooperation with America be constructive,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
Mr. Kellogg has said that the United States is conducting separate discussions on a potential peace deal with Russia and with Ukraine and that he is leading the U.S.-Ukraine track and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, is in charge of the U.S.-Russia track. The two envoys will then return to Washington to compare notes and determine the next steps, Mr. Kellogg added.
Mr. Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning for a three-day visit. Speaking from the city’s railway station upon arrival, he said that his mission would be to “sit and listen” to Ukraine’s concerns, and he added that he understood Ukraine’s “need for security guarantees” in any postwar settlement.
Later that day, he met with a series of top Ukrainian officials, including Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of the Ukrainian army; Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency; and Andriy Yermak, the head of Mr. Zelensky’s office. The timing of his meeting with the Ukrainian president on Thursday was not immediately clear.
Beyond discussing a possible path to a peace deal, Mr. Kellogg was expected to address a potential agreement that would grant the United States access to Ukrainian natural resources as compensation for past aid and, possibly, as a guarantee for future assistance. Mr. Trump has insisted that he wants payback for the money that Washington has invested in Ukraine’s defense.
Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury secretary, presented Mr. Zelensky with a draft of the agreement last week. But Mr. Zelensky rejected the proposal — an extraordinary demand to grant the United States a 50 percent interest in Ukraine’s natural resources like minerals, oil and gas — because it did not tie resource access to security guarantees for Kyiv.
Mr. Trump has demanded $500 billion of Ukrainian critical minerals, a request that Mr. Zelensky dismissed as “not serious” during a news conference on Wednesday. But Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine was still open to striking a deal to trade some of its resources for security guarantees.
Mr. Trump expressed frustration with Mr. Zelensky’s refusal to sign the deal, telling reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday night that Mr. Bessent had been “treated rather rudely.” Mr. Trump insisted that he would resurrect the deal with Ukraine’s leader, “or things are going to not make him too happy.”
In some ways, Mr. Kellogg could be an ally to Kyiv. He has adopted a more aggressive stance toward Russia than Mr. Trump and some of his advisers, proposing that Washington could increase sanctions to push Russia toward a peace deal and favorably viewing the Biden administration’s approval for Ukraine to strike inside Russia with long-range missiles.
Mr. Kellogg’s three-day visit to Ukraine is unusually long for an American official. Since the war began nearly three years ago, U.S. officials have typically limited their trips to a single day for security reasons.
Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday that he hoped Mr. Kellogg could talk to civilians and service members to grasp the reality of the war, including through a possible visit to the front line.
“It’s important to feel the atmosphere on the ground,” Mr. Zelensky said.
On Mr. Kellogg’s first night in Ukraine, air defense systems worked to repel a large Russian assault on energy infrastructure. The booms of antiaircraft missiles echoed across central Kyiv as the air alert blared for more than seven hours.
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