Zelenskyj was supposed to meet with Witkoff on Wednesday in Ankara. But when it became clear that the Ukrainian president was not interested in discussing the plan, the meeting was postponed, an American official told Axios on condition of anonymity.
“Instead, Zelensky traveled to Ankara with another plan, which he developed with European partners and which Russia will never accept,” the American official said, according to the server, without specifying what Zelensky’s plan looks like.
The Ukrainian representative of Axios said that the meeting was postponed because Zelenskyy asked the American side to discuss the plan in a broader format with European countries.
According to another American representative, the American president gave Witkoff the go-ahead to discuss the plan with Zelensky and try to reach an agreement with him. When he learned that Zelenskyj had a different plan, he agreed to cancel the meeting with Witkoff.
Zelensky, on the other hand, gave the green light to the head of the Ukrainian Security Council, Rustem Umerov, to discuss the plan in Washington. Umerova Witkoff informed about its wording, but only verbally, he did not receive any document, Axios reported. The Ukrainian side had reservations about the plan, he added. However, according to another server source, Umerov agreed with other points and “reached many agreements” with the Americans. But as one of the Ukrainian representatives concluded, Umerov never agreed with the plan.
Before Witkoff met with Umerov, he spoke at length about the plan with the Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriyev.
Zelenskyi gave a vague comment on the plan on the X network. He wrote that he supports the American president’s peace efforts.
