Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still reeling from the most serious domestic political crisis of his presidency — a fierce backlash over a bungled attempt to muzzle Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies — when his phone rang last week. It was Donald Trump.
The US president was telephoning to brief the Ukrainian leader, and European counterparts who joined the group call, on a meeting that had just wrapped up in Moscow. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had met with the man who had launched against Ukraine the bloodiest war on European soil in generations — Vladimir Putin.
Officials present and briefed on the call said that the tone was constructive. The message, however, was confusing. The Ukrainian leader was left wondering what exactly Witkoff and Putin had discussed — and he worried about what might have been promised by Witkoff to Russia’s leader in exchange for ending his invasion of Ukraine.