Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday (February 20) his talks with U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg "restore hope" in terms of achieving an agreement with Washington, Reuters reports.
"The details of the agreement are important. The better the details are drafted, the better the result," he said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskiy also mentioned he spoke with France's President Emmanuel Macron and shared "views on security guarantees" regarding the next steps in the latest diplomatic efforts on the end of the war with Russia.
Macron is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for the Ukraine conflict met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv earlier on Thursday but there was no immediate word on whether their talks had helped smooth over an unprecedented wartime rift between the once firm allies.
Zelenskiy had earlier struck a conciliatory tone after accusing Trump of repeating Russian disinformation in response to the U.S. president's accusation that Ukraine had started the three-year-old war with Russia. Trump went on to refer to Zelenskiy as a "dictator" who should act fast or lose his country.
Trump, in office for just a month, is pushing for a quick deal to end the war and has alarmed Washington's European allies by leaving them and Ukraine out of initial talks with Russia.
