A delegation of senior Ukrainian government officials is heading to the United States for talks with their American counterparts on Sunday about a proposed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X on Saturday that Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, will lead the delegation.
Appointment following Yermak’s dismissal
Umerov’s appointment came after Zelensky dismissed his chief adviser Andriy Yermak on Friday following a search of Yermak’s home by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency. Yermak was a key interlocutor with Kyiv’s Western allies and was widely seen as the second most powerful person in the Ukrainian government.
"The task is clear: to promptly and substantively work through the steps necessary to end the war. Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way."
– Zelensky said.
Details of the talks
Ukrainian officials are expected to meet with President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida, Bloomberg reports.
Witkoff, who is expected in Moscow next week for talks with Russian officials, found himself at the center of a media storm after Bloomberg published a transcript showing how he instructed a senior Kremlin official on how to approach negotiations with Trump.
Context of the peace plan
The planned talks in Florida come after the Trump administration put forward a 28-point peace plan that was criticized by Ukraine and European allies for being overly accommodating to Russia. The proposal as initially presented included significant territorial concessions by Ukraine, including the Donbas region, and would also have limited the size of the Ukrainian military.
The US president said the peace plan is not a "final offer" and that there is room for negotiation.
"We expect that the results of the meetings in Geneva will now be refined in the United States."
– Zelensky said in his Saturday post.
Ukraine’s chief intelligence officer Kyrylo Budanov, as well as the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Hnatov, are also part of the delegation sent to the US for Sunday’s talks.
Attack on Kyiv
The Ukrainian capital meanwhile suffered another attack by Russian drones and missiles in the early hours of Saturday, local officials said. At least two people were killed.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said a further 29 people were injured, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones struck residential buildings. He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power. More than 600,000 people in the Kyiv region were reported without electricity on Saturday morning, the BBC reports.
Officials said more than 30 missiles and about 600 drones were launched at targets across Ukraine overnight.
Strikes on "shadow fleet" tankers
Meanwhile, two oil tankers said to be part of Russia’s "shadow fleet" evading sanctions were struck off Turkey’s Black Sea coast, a Turkish official said on Saturday. The tankers Kairos and Virat were hit one after the other on Friday evening, prompting rescue operations, media reported.
Turkey’s transport and infrastructure minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said rescue services initially received reports that Kairos may have struck a mine before they were told of an explosion on Virat.
"Our crews indicate that there were explosions on the other ship and that they were also caused by external interference. The first things that come to mind regarding external interference could be a mine, a missile, a maritime vessel or a drone. We do not have final information on this."
– Uraloglu told NTV early on Saturday.
Reuters reported that Ukrainian forces struck the two tankers, citing an SBU official in Kyiv. The official told the agency that a joint operation to strike the vessels was carried out by the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces.
