U.S. President Donald Trump called his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before another round of negotiations on Thursday (February 26, 2026) to end the invasion by Russia; both presidents announced on Wednesday (February 25, 2026).
An official in the White House did not provide additional information regarding the call, which arrived one day prior to the Ukrainian and U.S. envoys meeting, and before additional trilateral discussions with Russia they were to have in early March.
However, Mr Zelenskyy posted on social media that he had talked to Mr Trump and that his Envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had been present in the meeting.
“The work in our teams is thorough, and I appreciated everything they were doing and their active participation in the negotiations and the attempts to stop the war,” he added.
Presidential advisor Dmytro Lytvyn of Ukraine said that the discussion had taken “about 30 minutes.”
The negotiator of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, will meet with Witkoff and Kushner in Geneva on Thursday (February 26), Kyiv announced.
The Kremlin envoy in charge of economic affairs of Russia, Kirill Dmitriev, later announced that he would also visit the city.
It quoted an unnamed source saying that “Dmitriev will come to Geneva on Thursday to conduct talks with the Americans on economic matters.”
The conferences are the most recent series of talks led by Mr Trump, who has so far been unable to achieve anything significant towards the termination of the deadliest war that Europe has witnessed since World War II.
Washington is campaigning to end the war that was instigated by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia four years ago, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed swathes of land, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Preparatory talks
Mr Zelenskyy indicated his phone call with Mr Trump “covered both the problems that our delegates will cover tomorrow at Geneva at the bilateral meeting, and preparations for the next meeting of the full negotiating teams in the trilateral format on the very first days of the month.”
“We hope this meeting will provide a platform through which the talks can be escalated to the level of leaders. President Trump justifies this series of actions. Only by this means will all the complex and sensitive issues be resolved, and ultimately the war will end,” he added.
The Ukrainian president has already indicated that he needs to have a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and sort out the toughest elements of the negotiations.
The negotiations, basing their approach on an American plan revealed at the end of last year, are stuck mainly over the future of the Donbas, the industrial belt in eastern Ukraine that has been the epicentre of the conflict.
Russia is already insisting on the total occupation of the eastern region of Ukraine, Donetsk, and threatens to annex it by force in case Kyiv does not yield at the negotiating table.
But Ukraine has denied the demand and indicated that it would not sign an agreement without security guarantees, discouraging Russia from invading again.
