Relations between Kiev and Washington are "back on track", Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Reuters, amid a tense meeting last month between the US and Ukrainian leaders in the Oval Office, BTA reports.
Yermak said two rounds of potential ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia had given Kiev a chance to show US officials it was open to working with US President Donald Trump in his bid to end the more than three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine.
Yermak stressed that this contradicted the Russian approach to the negotiations, which he said included putting terms of a peace agreement. "I think we are having great talks with the Americans," Yermak said yesterday in an interview from his office in Kiev. "I think we are back on the right track," he added.
The White House meeting on February 28 between Zelensky and Trump devolved into a back-and-forth, with Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance saying the Ukrainian leader had been disrespectful. Since then, Kiev has made efforts to repair relations, starting with a phone call between Trump and Zelensky on March 19, which Ermak described as "great".
It is not yet clear whether Kiev's approach will lead to concrete results from the negotiations that Ukraine is seeking or will change Trump's desire to build closer ties with Moscow, Reuters notes.
Describing the talks in Saudi Arabia, where US representatives are trying to reach agreements with the delegations of Russia and Ukraine, Ermak said: "We have shown that we are very serious, the Americans understood". "Dear American friends, you understand that we are partners. That was our goal," he added.
Yesterday in Saudi Arabia, the United States reached separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to establish a ceasefire in the Black Sea and halt attacks on energy infrastructure in both countries, but it was unclear when or how the agreements would take effect.