Ukraine and its European allies discussed the country’s economic recovery and funding requirements for its war effort during talks with US officials, hours after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered a drubbing in the midterm elections.
The Wednesday meeting in Brussels kicked off a round of consultations ahead of two days of US-led talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi starting on Nov. 10.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he separately had a “very detailed” call with White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service who led the country’s delegation in the talks, said in a social media post that officials discussed a so-called prosperity plan that “will define how we rebuild Ukraine after the war, attract investment, and create opportunities for our economy to grow.”
Ahead of the vote, Trump courted Moscow with a controversial diesel deal and a sanctions waiver, in an effort to lower energy prices pushed up by the war in Iran. Trump and Zelenskyy also had a public feud, with the Ukrainian leader blaming the US for a slowdown in SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet speeds that made it more difficult to intercept Russian projectiles. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Umerov also said Ukraine “presented our calculations for next year’s war effort: how much funding is needed, what deficit we need to cover, and which sources could provide it. He also said there had been delays in shipments of Patriot air defense interceptors. The meeting in Brussels included delegations from the US, Ukraine, Germany, France and the UK, as well as from NATO and the World Bank, it said. Kushner took part online, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the US midterm vote results are going to impact Trump’s efforts to end the war — now well into its fifth year — after his earlier attempts to broker peace failed.
