Ukraine prepares for talks with Trump envoys as Kyiv reels from deadly strikes

Ukraine is preparing for a new round of talks with representatives of US President Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, expressing hope that diplomacy can prevent open conflict from remaining the only path forward.

“There will be more details tomorrow. We will do everything we can so that war does not remain the only option for how events unfold further,” Zelensky said in a televised address. “It is important that America shares many of our views on the situation”.

US-led diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II, have been at a standstill for months. Russia has demanded sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine, which Kyiv has ruled out as tantamount to capitulation.

The United States has long been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a peace agreement. However, trips to the warring nations by US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, which had been expected in August, did not take place.

Zelensky’s diplomatic push comes as the death toll from a Russian strike on a warehouse west of Kyiv, the war’s deadliest attack this year, rose to 38 with four people still missing.

The Friday night strike on the warehouse, which Ukrainian officials said was storing ammunition, sparked massive explosions and fires that swept through dozens of nearby homes and buildings in the village of Myla.