Key facts
- President Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly planning to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington next week.
- The meeting is expected to take place during Zelensky's visit for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham.
- Senator Graham died on July 11 after returning from a trip to Kyiv.
- Diplomatic efforts between Washington and Kyiv have shown increased activity recently.
- Trump had previously stated Washington would grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot interceptors.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington next week. The meeting is anticipated to occur during Zelensky's visit to the United States for the funeral of late U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, according to Suspilne, citing diplomatic sources.
Senator Graham's funeral is slated for July 28 at the Washington National Cathedral. Graham, a strong supporter of both Ukraine and President Trump, passed away suddenly on July 11 following a trip to Kyiv, where he had announced an agreement with the White House on a long-delayed Russia sanctions bill.
The precise timing of the potential meeting between Trump and Zelensky has not yet been clarified. Suspilne had previously indicated that the Presidential Office was in the process of finalizing arrangements for the visit. However, the Presidential Office has not officially confirmed the meeting.
This planned visit to the U.S. comes at a time when peace negotiations between Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington have been stalled for six months. Diplomatic engagement between Washington and Kyiv has shown signs of acceleration, with Trump's U.S. envoy to NATO, Matt Whitaker, visiting Kyiv on July 22 to discuss the delivery of Patriot missiles and the pending U.S.-Ukraine Drone Deal.
Further diplomatic activity included a phone conversation on July 22 between Zelensky and Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The pace of discussions intensified on July 23 when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Manila on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' meeting. Rubio stated that he and Lavrov discussed U.S.-Russia relations and "the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war," adding that they were prepared to offer new ideas for peace if the opportunity and conditions were right.
Zelensky's discussions with members of the Trump administration appear to signal a potential shift in the U.S. government's stance toward Ukraine. Earlier this month, Trump announced that Washington would grant Ukraine licenses to produce its own Patriot interceptors, a development that occurred alongside Zelensky at the NATO summit in Turkey and was seen as a significant gain for Ukraine amid a shortage of defensive weapons against Russian ballistic missiles.
Additional progress beneficial to Kyiv was reported last week when a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a revised version of Graham's bill. This legislation aims to impose sanctions on major buyers of Russian oil and gas, with the goal of reducing the Kremlin's wartime revenue. The bill has garnered sufficient support in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and includes measures such as tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian energy.