Zelensky Calls US Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s Kyiv Skip Disrespectful

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the failure of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to visit Kyiv is “disrespectful,” while describing how he considered visits to Moscow but not Kyiv.

In the BBC account, Zelensky said he considered visits by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow but not Kyiv “disrespectful,” and he framed the imbalance as a message during ongoing negotiations.

ABC News

Zelensky said, “It’s disrespectful [for them] to come to Moscow and not Kyiv, it’s just disrespectful,” in an interview with a Ukrainian outlet, and he added, “I understand we have complex logistics... If they don’t want to, we can meet in other countries,”.

The BBC report also tied the dispute to the envoys’ prior travel, saying the pair visited the Russian capital late last year as ceasefire talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine gained pace, and again in January.

BBC further reported that Witkoff has been to Moscow eight times and met Vladimir Putin on many occasions, while neither he nor Kushner has ever visited Kyiv in an official capacity.

The Kyiv Post similarly reported Zelensky’s criticism of “plans for a high‑level visit to Moscow by US envoys,” saying it was disrespectful to engage with Russia without first visiting Kyiv, and quoted Zelensky: “It is disrespectful to come to Moscow and not Kyiv,”.

In the same line, SAMAA TV carried Zelensky’s remarks that “It’s disrespectful to come to Moscow and not Kyiv,” and said he found it unacceptable that the envoys visited Moscow multiple times but “have never made an official visit to Kyiv.”

The dispute over Kyiv visits sits inside a broader effort to revive ceasefire negotiations, which the BBC described as having gained pace in autumn 2025 and then continuing through February.

BBC said ceasefire talks gained pace in autumn 2025, when it emerged that Russian and US officials had been working on a plan to end the war in Ukraine that appeared to include several terms unfavourable to Kyiv, and Ukraine pushed to be involved.

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By February, both Moscow and Kyiv said they had reached an agreement on some “military issues”, including the location of the front line and ceasefire monitoring, but other issues remained unresolved.

BBC described unresolved disputes including Ukraine’s demand that Russia returns the Ukrainian children it forcibly deported since the start of the war, and Moscow’s insistence on a “regime change” in Kyiv.

The BBC report also said the last trilateral summit between Russia, the US and Ukraine was in mid-February, and less than two weeks later the US and Israel began striking Iran, shifting attention away from ending the Ukraine war.

In that context, BBC reported that Witkoff and Kushner are part of the US negotiating team travelling to Pakistan for ceasefire talks with Iran, and Zelensky acknowledged that the attention of the US was on the Middle East.

Both BBC and KOHA.net described Zelensky stressing the importance of continuing cooperation with the Americans, with BBC quoting Zelensky: “But... in any case, for us it is important to continue cooperating with the Americans,” and KOHA.net quoting: “But in any case, it is important for us to continue cooperation with the Americans,”.

While Zelensky criticized the envoys’ travel pattern, the BBC and KOHA.net both described the ceasefire process as reaching a dead-end over the status of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

“President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he considered visits by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow but not Kyiv "disrespectful"”

BBC

BBC said the key matter is the status of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, and it described Moscow’s demand for sovereign Ukrainian territory in exchange for an end to the war as unacceptable to Kyiv.

BBC added that neither side is willing to budge, leaving the talks at a dead-end, and it quoted Kyrylo Budanov, Zelensky’s chief of staff, saying, “We are looking for a compromise between two completely polar positions,”.

BBC then quoted Budanov continuing, “We have not yet found it,” and it added that in the end both Kyiv and Moscow will “have to acknowledge one of two things: either we find a solution and end this war, or we all equally take responsibility for admitting that we didn't find a solution and continue to kill one another - something we do quite efficiently and professionally.”

KOHA.net mirrored the same deadlock, saying “The main issue remains the status of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine,” and that “Russia's demand for Ukrainian territory in exchange for peace is unacceptable to Kiev, and neither side is giving up.”

The same report also quoted Budanov’s line, “We are looking for a compromise between two completely opposite positions,” and added, “So far we haven’t found it.”

TAG24 NEWS Deutschland GmbH also referenced Zelensky’s stance on eastern regions, saying Zelensky rejected a Russian demand for Ukraine to withdraw from the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which he said “would undoubtedly be a strategic defeat for us.”

The BBC described the war as an everyday reality for Ukrainians for over four years, with large swathes of eastern Ukraine under Russian control and fighting continuing along a long front line stretching from Luhansk in the north-east to Kherson in the south.

It said cities across Ukraine come under regular aerial attacks, with Russia employing hundreds of drones and missiles that kill civilians and damage infrastructure.

France 24

BBC reported that on one night last week Russia launched more than 700 drones and missiles in multiple waves, killing at least 18 people.

It also said Ukraine has ramped up its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure with long-range drones, hitting ports, factories, depots and oil terminals far into Russian territory.

According to Reuters calculations cited by BBC, at least 20% of Russia's total export capacity was out of order in early April following the attacks.

BBC added that the energy crisis caused by the war Iran - has so far resulted in financial gains for Russia as it boosted its oil revenue, although the country's GDP continues to fall.

The BBC also described the Druzhba pipeline, saying Hungary and Slovakia are still buying Russian oil pumped via Ukrainian territory through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, and that Druzhba was shut earlier this year after Ukraine said the infrastructure was damaged following a Russian strike in January.

Different outlets framed Zelensky’s jab at US envoys in ways that reflected their own emphasis on diplomacy, negotiation logistics, and the war’s unresolved political terms.

BBC presented Zelensky’s comments as part of a negotiation timeline that included autumn 2025 ceasefire momentum, a mid-February trilateral summit, and the subsequent shift to US-Israel strikes against Iran, while also stressing that Witkoff and Kushner were traveling to Pakistan for ceasefire talks with Iran.

GZERO Media

BBC quoted Zelensky’s line about logistics and meeting elsewhere, saying, “I understand we have complex logistics... If they don't want to, we can meet in other countries,” and it described Witkoff as Donald Trump’s special envoy and Kushner as the US president's son-in-law.

The Kyiv Post, while also citing BBC, framed the remarks as criticism of “plans for a high‑level visit to Moscow,” and added that Zelensky suggested meetings could take place in other locations if travel to Kyiv was not possible, quoting “If they don’t want to, we can meet in other countries,”.

SAMAA TV presented Zelensky’s remarks as a “rare public jab” and said the imbalance “sends the wrong message during ongoing negotiations,” while repeating Zelensky’s quote “It’s disrespectful,”.

TAG24 NEWS Deutschland GmbH described Zelensky’s comments as a “rare public attack” and added a separate political rejection, saying Zelensky warned that withdrawing from Luhansk and Donetsk “would undoubtedly be a strategic defeat for us.”

Winn FM reproduced the same core quotes and also stated that earlier in April Zelensky said the two were planning on visiting Ukraine, but that the trip “never materialised amid the US-Israel war with Iran.”