Ukraine’s presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak told Newsmax on Friday that his meeting in New York with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was “productive and important,” but warned that Russia’s latest strikes on Kyiv that killed 23 civilians, including four children, demonstrate Moscow has no political will to end the war.
Yermak told “American Agenda” he briefed Witkoff on the scale of the most recent attacks earlier Friday, even showing photos of the destruction.
“Just in Kyiv we lost 23 persons, including four children,” he said, calling the assault a grim reminder of the stakes.
The talks with Witkoff came on the heels of last week’s high-profile summit at the White House, where Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump met with seven European leaders to discuss a framework for peace talks. That meeting produced an agreement that Russian President Vladimir Putin would first hold bilateral discussions with Ukraine, followed by trilateral talks with Trump mediating.
But Yermak said Moscow has shown no sign of moving in that direction.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t see any signal just for the preparation of these meetings,” he said. “This terrible attack is not demonstrating that Moscow has the political will to end this war.”
Witkoff has met with Zelenskyy and senior Ukrainian officials to coordinate on security and reconstruction needs while relaying Trump’s positions to Kyiv. His New York session with Yermak and Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister and former envoy to the U.N., was billed as a follow-up to the White House summit and part of ongoing U.S.-Ukraine dialogue.
Russia’s missile barrage that struck Kyiv on Wednesday was one of the deadliest in months. Rescue workers spent hours digging survivors from rubble in the capital’s Dniprovskyi District.
For Yermak, the timing of the assault underscored his message in New York: Ukraine still urgently needs U.S. backing at the negotiating table and on the battlefield. He stressed that despite heavy losses, Ukraine remains resilient and is pressing for negotiations that would deliver a durable peace, echoing remarks Trump made at the White House summit.
“First of all, it’s very important to understand that just now, in this difficult situation, Ukraine [is] not losing this war and Russia [is] not winning; we stand strong,” Yermak said. “Now we ask, please press to Russia, push Russia to the table of negotiations. … We want [a] just and lasting peace. And what [was a] great phrase of President Trump during this summit in White House, he said, I’m not interested [in] the solutions for the month and just for the [next] couple of years; I want for [a] long period of time. And this is possible only for the just and lasting peace.”
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