Ukraine just got a New York meeting with Trump and Russia still won't say a word
21 September 2026 · 21 September 2026Share
President Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Tuesday, September 23, 2025. The White House · Public domain
Ukraine and America are about to sit down face to face.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President, says he's meeting Donald Trump in New York during the United Nations General Assembly.
That's their first face-to-face meeting since July.
Zelenskyy announced it himself, about a day ago, on X. He'd just got off the phone with Trump.
He says quote "there is diplomatic momentum."
So what does that actually mean? Nobody's said yet.
No official date. Not from Washington. Not from Kyiv.
But Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's chief negotiator, told Axios it's happening on Tuesday. That's also the day the UN General Assembly's high-level week starts.
Right now, Umerov is the only one naming a day.
And here's the thing. Trump hasn't confirmed any of this himself. Russia hasn't said a word either.
So why now? Because Trump's team has already been to both capitals.
Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, went to Moscow first, earlier this month. Then Kyiv, the next day.
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for sending them. He says they saw the situation in Ukraine firsthand.
Zelenskyy also thanked Trump for something else — a new sanctions bill, signed a few days ago. It's called the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named for the senator who co-wrote it before he died.
Zelenskyy says quote "there are ideas for de-escalation steps and for addressing fundamental security issues – energy security, food security, and the protection of human life."
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, says Ukraine wants a ceasefire covering energy infrastructure and the Black Sea to come out of this meeting.
But here's what doesn't fit.
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United Nations General Assembly Building, New York City. File photo. Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0
A source who knows what was said on the Trump-Zelenskyy call told Axios that Trump kept pushing Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian oil refineries. The word diesel, apparently, came up again and again.
And on that exact same day, Ukraine hit an oil refinery in a missile strike on Moscow.
Russia hasn't stopped either. It's been firing missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities almost every day for weeks.
So both sides are talking peace. And both sides kept attacking on the day the peace meeting was announced.
Zelenskyy has said before that Ukraine would stop hitting Russian territory — if America can get Russia to promise it'll stop hitting Ukraine's infrastructure back. Whether that trade is close, nobody's saying.
Umerov told Axios the sticking points have gone from dozens down to essentially one or two key issues. He didn't say what they are.
And there's something odd sitting underneath all of this.
Two days before Zelenskyy's announcement, Ukrainian outlet Suspilne reported that Mike Waltz, America's ambassador to the UN, said Zelenskyy wasn't even on Trump's UN schedule. Ukraine had already said the meeting was agreed.
Neither side has explained that.
This relationship has been rocky in public before. Around 19 months ago, Trump and Zelenskyy clashed in a televised Oval Office meeting. JD Vance, the US Vice President, called Zelenskyy disrespectful to his face.
They last actually met in person at the NATO summit in Ankara, about two and a half months ago.
And the stakes on the ground are severe. The UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission counted at least 1,396 civilians killed and close to 8,000 wounded in Ukraine across the first six months of this year. That's a 37% jump on the same period the year before.
So what don't we know? Whether Trump and Vladimir Putin, Russia's President, have actually agreed on any framework between themselves.
About two weeks ago, right after Witkoff and Kushner left Moscow, the Kremlin reported a call between Trump and Putin. Trump said afterwards he believes Putin wants a peace deal.
Russia still hasn't said anything about the Zelenskyy meeting. And it hasn't promised to take a single step back.
The meeting is set. What either side is actually willing to give up is not.
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