Zelenskyy's chief of staff, US NSA Waltz hold phone call, agree to further talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff on Wednesday said that Ukraine and the US have agreed to hold further talks after a call with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

“Had a phone conversation with the U.S. President’s National Security Advisor, @michaelgwaltz. We discussed the next steps towards a just and lasting peace,” Andriy Yermak said on X.

“We also exchanged views on security issues and the alignment of positions within the framework of bilateral relations between Ukraine and the United States. We have scheduled a meeting for our teams in the near future to continue this important work,” added Yermak.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later noted “positive movement” in cooperation with the US, suggesting a potential meeting between the two sides soon.

Kyiv is keen to mend its relationship with its primary military ally against Russia’s invasion, following a public spat between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump last week regarding the resolution of the war in Ukraine.

“Today our Ukrainian and US teams began working on a meeting. Andriy Yermak and Mike Waltz spoke,” Reuters quoted Zelenskyy as saying in his evening address.

“There is positive movement. We hope for the first results next week,” he added.

Both statements came just hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the US had paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.

“What President Trump said is, he asked for a pause. As I mentioned, President Trump is the peace president, (there has) never been a war under his leadership, (and) he wants to end the wars that exist,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network.

“And so in this case, as everyone saw play out, president Trump had a real question about whether president Zelenskyy was committed to the peace process, and he said: let’s pause, I want to give you a chance to think about that,” he added.

Ratcliffe said President Zelenskyy issued a statement expressing his readiness for peace and his desire for Donald Trump’s leadership to facilitate that process.

“And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away, and I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, but (it was needed) to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward,” Ratcliffe said.

With inputs from agencies