Budanov Heads to US With Ukrainian Negotiating Team for ‘Important Meetings,’ European Leaders Set to Join

October 9 ------ Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov announced that he is on his way to the US with Ukraine’s negotiating team, where several important meetings are planned. “We cannot discuss everything, but we must remain wise and united and support our own military,” Budanov said in a statement. “Peace is not achieved through loud statements – it requires hard work together,” he continued.

European team to join the talks

Earlier on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine’s negotiating team is scheduled to meet with senior US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Oct. 9-10.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, alongside Budanov, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, Servant of the People faction leader Davyd Arakhamia and First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia will also be present. “Two days of meetings are expected, and we are counting on a European team joining both our negotiating group and the American negotiating group,” Zelensky said. Zelensky announced separately on Thursday that he discussed the upcoming talks with European Council President António Costa.

A trilateral format with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had also been discussed and agreed upon, Zelensky said, without providing a specific date. The two leaders also went over the timeline for opening new clusters in Ukraine’s EU accession talks, a winter energy package and additional financial aid, ahead of the European Council summit in Brussels on Oct. 15-16.

Diplomatic momentum began early September

The diplomatic visit comes as Kyiv works on maintaining the diplomatic momentum that began in early September, when Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Moscow, where they met Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian officials. A day later, on Sept. 6, the two envoys visited Kyiv for the first time since taking office. While all three sides described the talks as substantive, Russia has continued to launch large-scale attacks across Ukraine, striking civilian infrastructure and killing civilians almost daily.

Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump in New York in late September on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where he laid out Kyiv’s positions on a potential energy ceasefire, trilateral talks involving Putin, domestic production of Patriot missiles and Russia’s growing threats to Europe.

Moscow, for its part, has so far rejected every ceasefire proposal put forward by both Ukraine and the EU. During the same summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who represented Russia in place of Putin, said Moscow would not halt its aggression on Ukraine even during negotiations. The Kremlin has also continued to insist on full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region as a condition for peace, a demand Kyiv has categorically rejected, arguing that it should not have to give up its sovereign territory in exchange for a possible settlement. Meanwhile, efforts to bring Putin to the negotiating table have so far made little progress.

The Russian leader last met Trump at a summit in Anchorage, Alaska in August 2025. He has since been invited to the G20 summit in the US held December, but the Kremlin has said it is too early to discuss the trip, and reports suggest Putin may skip it altogether.

Source: kyivpost.com