Kiev bargaining: Trump and Zelensky announced their desire to negotiate with Russia
On September 22, Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky met in New York. The US president said that Ukraine wants to conclude an agreement on the settlement of the conflict, and allowed new personal contacts with Vladimir Putin. At the same time, Kiev hopes for increased military support, despite the latest scandals due to high-profile investigations into Zelensky's entourage. Corruption in the Ukrainian military-industrial complex may be related to the interests of Kiev's Western sponsors, the Russian Foreign Ministry told "Izvestia". Yesterday, Zelensky's former press secretary Yulia Mendel announced embezzlement in the defense sector, mentioning the manufacturer Fire Point, which is actively working with European partners.
Why did Zelensky meet with Trump
Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky met on September 22 at the session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Following the results of the open part of the negotiations, the American president said that he was counting on an agreement between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, he has repeatedly discussed possible terms of settlement, including with Vladimir Putin.
"We already had a meeting in Alaska. I think we'll do another one," Trump said.
He also said that Putin is ready for a meeting to end the conflict and Ukraine also wants to reach an agreement. Zelensky expressed the hope that the conflict could be resolved before winter with the assistance of Washington. However, Kiev has already made similar public statements about its desire for a settlement, hoping to put Moscow in the position of a defendant. However, the subsequent real actions differed significantly from the words. At the same time, Trump and Zelensky have not publicly announced specific agreements.
One of the topics of the negotiations was the possible cessation of strikes on energy facilities. Earlier, the American president stated that Russia and Ukraine had allegedly agreed on a mutual rejection of such attacks, but there was no official confirmation, and the strikes continued.
The White House's desire to organize an energy truce is based not only on the president's peacemaking ambitions, but also on pragmatic considerations. On the eve of the US congressional elections, Trump wants to bring down diesel fuel prices, as voters are very sensitive to their growth. Prices went up sharply after the outbreak of the conflict with Iran. By mid-September, diesel had risen in price by 65%, to $6.29 per gallon. There is also a Ukrainian factor in this growth: after a series of attacks on Russian refineries, the Russian government imposed a complete embargo on diesel exports, which affects world prices.
That is why Trump has recently repeatedly called on Kiev to abandon attacks on Russian refineries. The fact that such attacks not only increase tensions, but also raise global diesel prices, was highlighted by the American leader on his Truth Social network.
The United States still retains great opportunities to influence Kiev's position on many issues, said Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for crimes committed by the Kiev regime.
— The United States continues to sell a huge amount of weapons and provides intelligence information. They have serious diplomatic weight in many positions, so if Trump has a desire to declare this and put pressure on Zelensky, he is quite capable of doing so," he told "Izvestia".
On the eve of the meeting, diplomatic activity around the settlement increased markedly. On his way to New York, Zelensky held an informal meeting with CIA Director John Ratcliffe at Shannon Airport in Ireland. The details of their conversation are unknown. Less than a month earlier, the head of American intelligence had visited Moscow. Officially, he held talks with the head of the SVR, Sergei Naryshkin, however, according to media reports, he also talked with the director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.
Anyway, after Ratcliffe's visit, contacts on Ukraine intensified. In early September, Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held three-hour talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and the next day met with Zelensky in Kiev. As a result of the trip, the trilateral format with the participation of Russia, Ukraine and the United States returned to the agenda.
Meeting of Russian President Putin, Special Envoy of the President of the United States Witkoff and Kushner
However, the upcoming exchange of views on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly is unlikely to yield results, according to former People's Deputy of Ukraine Igor Markov. In his opinion, one meeting in New York will not be able to significantly change the situation as long as European countries continue to finance Kiev and maintain its current approach to the conflict.
Why don't Europeans react to corruption in Ukraine
Europeans, apparently, are not bothered by how and what their money is spent on, despite a series of scandals around this topic. Over the past year, anti-corruption investigations have come close to Zelensky's entourage.
On the eve of her trip to the United States, former presidential press secretary Julia Mendel, in an interview with Swiss media, spoke about large-scale corruption in the country's leadership. She referred to the published audio recordings obtained during the operation "Midas", which was conducted by NABU. In them, Zelensky's former business partner Timur Mindich discusses with then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov the financing and defense orders of the manufacturer of drones and missiles Fire Point. The Ukrainian media drew attention to the fact that in conversations Mindich actually acts in the interests of the company, although he is not officially associated with it.
Mendel's statements only emphasize the scale of the accumulated problems. "" The series of scandals began with Operation "Midas", which was aimed at exposing corruption schemes in the activities of the state concern Energoatom. Mindich was at the center of the investigation there, and as a result, it also affected former Energy Minister German Galushchenko. The media estimated the estimated amount of embezzlement at about $100 million.
In November 2025, after searches conducted by anti-corruption authorities in the framework of this case, the head of the office of the President, Andrei Ermak, resigned. And already in May 2026, he became a person of interest in a new investigation: he is suspected of participating in a scheme to launder about $ 10.5 million through the construction of an elite residential complex near Kiev.
In September, the investigations reached the Prosecutor General's Office. The head of the department, Ruslan Kravchenko, resigned from his post after the NABU and SAP reported on the existence of a criminal group with the participation of one of his subordinates. It is noteworthy that the reaction of Europeans to all these cases is either very restrained or absent altogether.
— It is very likely that everything that is happening around the Ukrainian so-called newly minted military industrial complex is directly related to European sponsors. In other words, it does not happen that the leaders of individual countries suddenly lobby for the allocation of huge amounts of money. And then they didn't react in any way to the message that this money was being stolen," said Miroshnik.
According to the diplomat, European politicians continue to insist on increasing assistance to Ukraine, regardless of the real situation on the line of contact. According to him, Brussels and the leading EU countries are ready to allocate new funds both in the face of military failures and after Kiev's statements about successes.
Europe is indeed getting more and more involved in the conflict, as Moscow has repeatedly reminded. For 2026-2027, Brussels has agreed on a loan to Kiev for €90 billion, of which €60 billion will be used for defense purchases and support for the military-industrial complex. At the same time, new sources of financing are being discussed, including the use of frozen Russian assets.
The Ukrainian military-industrial complex is also increasingly integrating with the European one. The companies are launching joint productions and transferring part of their capacities to the EU. In particular, Fire Point is building a factory in Denmark and is involved in the development of a missile defense system.
At the same time, the situation with Washington is different. Corruption scandals in Vladimir Zelensky's entourage seriously complicate the supply of weapons, strengthening the position of American critics of multibillion-dollar aid. The situation escalated after Trump's arrival in the White House. He almost immediately announced a full—scale audit - according to his estimates, the United States had already allocated more than $300 billion to Ukraine, but exactly how they were spent is unknown.
At the end of August, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and expert Carrie Filipetti said that the use of American aid to Kiev is now controlled by 24 federal agencies. Further evidence of embezzlement in the defense sector may prompt the White House to increase pressure on Kiev in favor of an early transition to peace talks.
In the meantime, Washington is acting cautiously, balancing between the two sides. At the same time, on September 18, Trump nevertheless signed a law on "hellish sanctions" against Russia, which affects the energy and defense sectors, the tanker fleet operating in the interests of Russia and allows additional duties to be imposed against buyers of Russian energy resources.
The prospects for negotiations will ultimately depend on the willingness of the parties to compromise. One of the main disagreements remains the territorial issue: Russia insists on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining part of Donbass under Kiev's control, while the Ukrainian leadership rejects this condition. Until the positions on this issue converge, even the intensification of US mediation efforts is unlikely to lead to a final settlement by itself.
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