UPDATE - Zelenskyy, Trump discuss issues to be addressed during Ukraine-US talks in Geneva

ADDS REPORT ON TRUMP REMARKS

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke by phone with his US counterpart Donald Trump about issues to be addressed during bilateral talks Thursday in Switzerland.

In a statement Wednesday on the US social media company X’s platform following the call, in which he said US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner took part, Zelenskyy said they also discussed preparing for the next trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US “at the very beginning of March.”

“We expect this meeting to create an opportunity to move talks to the leaders’ level. President Trump supports this sequence of steps. This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war,” he said.

Noting that both the Ukrainian and American teams are working “intensively,” Zelenskyy said he “thanked them for all their work and for their active involvement in the negotiations and the efforts to end the war.”

“We also greatly value the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) initiative. This winter has been the most difficult one for Ukraine, but the missiles for air defense systems that we purchase from the US are helping us get through all these challenges and protect lives,” he added.

Earlier, Zelenskyy announced a bilateral meeting between the US envoys and Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov on Thursday, during which the two countries will discuss the “prosperity package” for Ukraine, among other issues.

“I just spoke with Rustem Umerov. Tomorrow, he will meet with American negotiators Witkoff and Kushner,” he told journalists, adding Umerov will for the first time be accompanied by Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev.

Trump told Zelenskyy that he hoped to end the Russia-Ukraine war in a month, the US-based Axios news site reported.

"Zelensky then said he hopes the war will finish this year, and Trump replied that the war has been going on for far too long," it said, citing a source with knowledge of the call as saying.

On the possibility of a trilateral leaders’ summit, Trump reportedly told Zelenskyy that he would attempt to secure the meeting if peace efforts advance in the early March talks.

*Contributions by Ahmet Salih Alacaci from Washington, DC