Trump aides to visit Ukraine for first time this week, Zelenskiy says

By Yuliia Dysa and Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that "serious" members of U.S. President Donald Trump's team would travel to Ukraine this week for the first time, as diplomatic efforts to end the war with Russia intensify.

Zelenskiy, who is trying to forge close relations with Trump as the U.S. president seeks to rapidly stop the bloodshed, said the visit would take place before the February 14-16 Munich Security Conference, though he did not clarify who would visit.

"This week, some people from the Trump team, serious ones, will be in Ukraine - even before the Munich conference," he said in a video released by the UNIAN news agency.

Zelenskiy also confirmed that he planned to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Munich conference and that his team was trying to set up a meeting with Trump.

"Our teams are also working on dialogue and a meeting with President Trump," he said, days after Trump said he would "probably" meet with Zelenskiy this week.

The United States has been Ukraine's most important ally since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and Kyiv is trying to win over the new Trump administration with an offer of a partnership to develop deposits of critical minerals.

Russian troops have been gaining ground in the east for months, throwing huge resources at an unrelenting offensive while Kyiv's smaller army grapples with a shortage of soldiers and frets over future weapons supplies from abroad.

Zelenskiy, who praised Trump's election win in November, has said it is important that he meets with the U.S. president in person to decide strategy, before Trump sits down for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"It's important for me today to focus on the practical work of the Ukrainian and U.S. teams, on a common vision, preferably, of the main things," Zelenskiy said, alluding to his quest to win security guarantees from the West.

'PRODUCTIVE WORK'

Trump has not clarified his policy to end the war, including whether the U.S. will continue providing weapons to Ukraine.

Trump indicated on Sunday that he had been in contact with Putin, without specifying when. The Kremlin neither confirmed nor denied those contacts.

"Let's see who, how and whether it is true," Zelenskiy said.

On Monday, Russia's point man for relations with the United States, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said all of Putin's conditions must be met in full before the war in Ukraine could end.

Those conditions include Ukraine dropping its NATO ambitions and withdrawing its troops from the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia. Kyiv and its European allies see that as akin to capitulation.

Zelenskiy said in Monday's remarks that he was expecting "productive work" with U.S. officials in Ukraine after the Munich conference.

Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, is expected to visit Kyiv this month after the postponement of a visit that was initially planned before Trump's inauguration. Kellogg is also attending the Munich conference.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; editing by Tom Balmforth, Rod Nickel and Nia Williams)