Ukraine peace team holds U.S. talks ahead of Davos summit

Ukraine’s peace negotiators arrived in the United States on Saturday for talks on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package, Ukrainian officials said, as Kyiv seeks progress on a proposed agreement to end the nearly four-year war with Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that the senior delegation could sign agreements with Washington on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside Czech President Petr Pavel, Zelenskyy said the talks would also seek clarity from Washington on Russia’s position towards U.S.-backed diplomatic efforts to end the war.

“I think we have worked well with the American side, we are just not on the same side on some issues,” Zelenskyy said.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters earlier this week that he may meet Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Davos forum, a meeting the Ukrainian leader has publicly sought.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had completed its work on a proposed “prosperity package” to fund post-war reconstruction, as well as on U.S. security guarantees aimed at preventing a future Russian attack.

Ukrainian officials estimate reconstruction could cost about $800bn.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Olha Stefanishyna, said senior officials would hold bilateral talks on the two agreements on Saturday in Miami.

“The purpose of the visit is to refine these agreements with American partners,” she said in a Facebook post, adding that they “may be signed … in Davos”.

The head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, confirmed that the delegation had arrived in the United States and would meet White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll.

“Ukraine needs a just peace. We are working to achieve results,” Budanov said on the Telegram app.

Washington has been pressing Kyiv to agree to a peace framework that could then be presented to Moscow, while Ukraine and its European allies have sought firm, enforceable security guarantees to prevent another Russian attack.

Trump said on Wednesday that Russia was ready for a peace deal and described Zelenskyy as an obstacle to peace, an assessment that contrasts with the position of European allies.

Zelenskyy rejected that view, saying Russia was instead delaying peace efforts and pointing to recent strikes on Ukraine’s energy system.

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“Each of these strikes against our energy sector and our cities quite clearly shows Russia’s real interests and intentions,” he wrote on social media. “They are not interested in agreements, but in the further destruction of Ukraine.”

He also renewed calls for more air defence ammunition to protect Ukraine’s power grid, saying several systems had been left without missiles until a new aid package arrived on Friday morning.

“Ultimatums are not, in my view, a workable model for democratic relations between countries,” Zelenskyy said.

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