KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv is seeking a fresh meeting with US President Donald Trump and European allies as soon as next week after telling reporters that Russia is poised to launch a new offensive in eastern Ukraine.
“The concentration [of Russian troops] there is up to 100,000,” Zelenskyy said on August 29, referring to the front lines near the highly strategic city Pokrovsk.
Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s southern Donetsk region, had a prewar population of 60,000 before the war. Most have fled as Russian forces have besieged the mining town for months but have been unable to break the defensive lines and capture the city.
The comments came after Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov boasted about his country’s military effort in Ukraine, despite years of high casualties and a major drain on the Russian economy.
Belousov also praised Russia’s campaign of deadly missile and drone strikes on Ukraine — attacks that have killed hundreds of civilian and been soundly condemned by the international community.
The Russian defense chief said 35 aerial assaults against 146 strategically important sites so far this year have caused severe damage to Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Those remarks came a day after Ukraine mourned the loss of 22 people, including four children, in one building alone that had collapsed in a Russian strike on Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian officials want to meet with Trump and European allies next week amid struggling efforts to bring about a cease-fire and eventual end to the all-out war, which begin with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Trump, who has made ending the war a top priority of his presidential term, has expressed frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s refusal to accept US calls for direct negotiations with Zelenskyy.
A week ago, Trump said he would decide in two weeks on his next steps if direct negotiations were not scheduled, although he has previous given such a deadline but held off on action.
On August 26, he raised the possibility of new sanctions on Moscow.
“It will not be a world war, but it will be an economic war,” Trump said. “An economic war is going to be bad, and it’s going to be bad for Russia, and I don’t want that.”
But he added that “Zelenskyy is not exactly innocent, either. I get along with him now, but we have a much different relationship because now, we’re not paying any money to Ukraine,” said Trump, referring to a deal in which NATO members buy US weapons for use by Kyiv.
Ukraine has accepted a US cease-fire proposal and calls for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, but Moscow has not agreed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on August 29 repeated Moscow’s long-stated position that Putin “has not ruled out” a meeting with Zelenskyy but that it could come only after progress is made “at the expert level.”
In France, President Emmanuel Macron said if the Russian leader refuses to meet with Zelenskyy, “it will show again that President Putin has played President Trump,” adding that Paris would push for new “primary and secondary sanctions” on Moscow.
Also on August 29, Andriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser, met with White House envoy Steve Witkoff in New York.
“The most important thing is to push for real diplomacy and the implementation of all the agreements of the summit in Washington. We coordinate our activity,” Yermak wrote on Telegram following the meeting,
He said he informed “Witkoff about the crimes of war that Russia commits every day against our cities and communities of Ukraine. In particular, about a massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv, which claimed the lives of 23 people, including four children.”
The US side did not immediately comment on the meeting.
On the same day, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on the recent deadly Russian air strikes on Ukraine, many aimed at the capital, Kyiv.
Senior US diplomat John Kelley told the Council that this week’s missile and drone strikes on Ukraine “cast doubt on the seriousness of Russia’s desire for peace.”
“The United States calls on the Russian Federation to avoid these consequences by stopping the violence and engaging constructively to end the war,” he said.
Putin Heads To China
Zelenskyy has also called out China — a close ally of Russia — to put more pressure on Putin to end the war.
Putin is scheduled to attend a meeting in China starting August 31 along with leaders from Iran and North Korea — two other countries that have been active in supporting Russia’s war effort.
Iran has provided Shahed drones while North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to fight alongside Russia troops, suffering heavy losses in the process.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on August 30 promised “a beautiful life” for the families of “martyrs” who died fighting for Russia, state media said. Western sources have estimated some 6,000 dead and wounded among the North Korean fighters in the war.
