Zelensky says he spoke with Trump envoys on reviving Ukraine diplomacy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that he had spoken with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about efforts to revive diplomacy aimed at ending the war with Russia.

Zelensky said on X that the conversation was good and important and focused on how to bring peace closer. He said Ukraine needed peace with dignity and had long been ready for it, and that the teams would remain in close contact to follow up on the talks.

The report said US-led efforts to resolve the conflict have stalled as Washington's attention has turned to the Middle East, while Russia has kept a hardline demand that Ukraine cede territory.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit in Manila to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

The report said Kyiv has appeared in recent months to stall Moscow's offensive and has substantially expanded drone strikes inside Russia, disrupting ordinary life there in the war's fifth year. It said Moscow has escalated deadly missile strikes against Kyiv, launching dozens of hard-to-intercept rounds as Ukraine struggles with depleted air defence stocks.

Russia has urged Ukraine to withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donbas region it still holds as a precondition for any peace deal. Kyiv has rejected the demand.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and become Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga also accused Russia of threatening global food supplies by targeting ships in the Black Sea that carry farm produce. He said Kyiv had sought a UN Security Council meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.

Sybiga said Russia was holding global food security hostage. He said at least three civilian cargo ships had been bombed by Russia in recent days and that dozens of crew members had been killed or injured. He warned that families across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America could face rising prices and hunger if the attacks continued.