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Kiev previously warned the US not to discuss the conflict with Russia without giving it a seat at the table
Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has criticized Vladimir Zelensky’s alleged lack of effective communication with the administration of US President Donald Trump following the Republican’s return to the White House.
In a video statement on his Facebook page on Sunday, Poroshenko expressed concern over what he described as the Ukrainian leader’s failure to “establish an effective channel of communication” with Trump’s White House in the two weeks since the US president’s inauguration. The comments were part of a broader report detailing Poroshenko’s recent meetings with EU officials and the positive outcomes they supposedly produced. The former president added that his team plans to travel to Washington to continue the diplomatic outreach.
Poroshenko offered no proof of poor communication between Kiev and Washington, but some circumstantial evidence supports his assertion. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, has alleged that Zelensky sought an invitation to Trump’s inauguration but was rejected away multiple times.
In an interview with the Associated Press last week, Zelensky claimed that direct US-Russia talks without Kiev’s oversight would be “dangerous for everyone.” Poroshenko’s messaging mirrors Zelensky’s. In his statement on Sunday, he took credit for the principle of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” On the same day, Trump said he has upcoming talks planned with both Ukraine and Russia, remarking that “those discussions are actually going pretty well.”
Last week, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, called on Kiev to lift its ban on national elections, stating that “most democratic nations have elections in their time of war.” Zelensky suspended voting under martial law, but refused to transfer presidential authority to the speaker of the parliament, as the Ukrainian Constitution requires.
Political maneuvering in Ukraine is heating up, with senior figures increasingly challenging Zelensky. Last week, Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko accused the central government of attempting to “destroy local governance” with its power plays. A former boxing champion, Klitschko co-led the 2014 Western-backed protests that resulted in an armed coup and the toppling of Ukraine’s democratically elected government.
Moscow has expressed cautious optimism about Trump’s stated goals regarding the Ukraine conflict, but says it seeks an enduring resolution and not a freeze of the conflict. Since Zelensky’s term as president expired last year, Russia has questioned his authority to sign any international treaties.
