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Zelenskyy Ramps Up Diplomatic Efforts Amid Russian Attacks, Corruption Scandal

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service November 30, 2025

Summary

• Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is sending a team to the US and planning a Paris visit to push for a "dignified peace" amid Russian attacks and a corruption scandal.
• US and Ukrainian officials are to discuss a "refined" peace plan, but key issues like NATO membership and territorial disputes remain unresolved.
• Massive Russian air strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure killed three people and caused widespread power outages, prompting calls for more defensive weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is stepping up global efforts to thrash out a peace agreement, sending a negotiating team to the United States and planning a trip to Paris himself as his government battles a corruption scandal and intensified Russian air attacks.

Zelenskyy on November 29 said he dispatched the negotiating team to the United States as part of efforts to seek a "dignified peace" and an end to the all-out war launched by Russia in February 2022.

He said the delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, a former defense minister who is now secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and a member of Kyiv's negotiating team.

A senior US official told news agencies that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will travel to Florida to meet with the Ukrainian delegation on November 30.

Following the Florida meeting, Witkoff is also scheduled to travel to Moscow next week amid accelerating efforts to cement the controversial US proposal.

Meanwhile, French authorities announced that President Emmanuel Macron will host Zelenskyy in Paris on December 1 to discuss "the conditions for a just and lasting peace."

Kyiv and its European allies -- led by France, Britain, and Germany -- are pressing to develop an alternative or modified peace plan after Trump put forward a 28-point proposal that critics claimed was skewed too far in Russia's favor.

Zelenskyy did not comment on his planned trip to Paris, but Macron has been one of Kyiv's strongest backers as it fights off the Russian invasion. Zelenskiy was also in Paris on November 17.

The initial 28-point version echoes the hard-line positions Russia has taken since at least the launch of its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

That alarmed Ukrainian officials -- and reportedly angered Zelenskyy -- who then held their own bilateral talks with US officials.

The resulting "refined" 19-point plan still leaves several key issues on the table, including the fate of a chunk of Ukraine's Donetsk region that the Kremlin has been determined to seize.

Other pitfalls include the Kremlin's insistence that Ukraine be forever barred from joining NATO and a potential cap on the size of Kyiv's military.

Chief Of Staff Resigns

The diplomatic activity comes after a tumultuous week that culminated in the resignation of Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's highly influential chief of staff, hours after the country's anti-corruption bureau and prosecutor's office conducted searches in his office.

The raids were part of a corruption scandal involving the alleged siphoning off of tens of millions of dollars of funds meant for the country's vulnerable energy infrastructure.

Several influential individuals with links to Zelenskyy have been implicated in the scheme, though the president himself has not been directly implicated.

Yermak has not been directly accused of wrongdoing and said during the raids that investigators had been given "full access" to his apartment and that he was providing his "full cooperation.

'Without Wasting A Single Day'

The diplomatic moves also come as Russia launched a series of massive air attacks on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country as temperatures begin to plunge.

The attacks killed at least three people and wounded dozens of others, prompting Zelenskyy to renew his call for additional defensive weapons to protect Ukrainian cities.

"We must work without wasting a single day to ensure that there are enough missiles for our air defense systems, and that everything necessary for our protection and for pressure on Russia is in place," he said.

Ukraine has hit back at sites inside Russia that Kyiv says are used to bolster the Kremlin's war effort.

Ukraine's military said it hit the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region early on November 29, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in the Rostov region.

Meanwhile, sources told RFE/RL's Ukrainian service that two so-called "shadow fleet" tankers -- the KAIRO and VIRAT -- used by Russia to export oil while skirting Western sanctions were attacked with marine drones in the Black Sea.

"Modernized Sea Baby naval drones were successfully used on the ships," said the source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the operation.

Elsewhere, Moldova on November 29 said Russian drones had entered the country's airspace before flying into neighboring Ukrainian territory. The intrusion, which Chisinau said posed a danger to aviation, was the third such incident in nine days.

Pro-West President Maia Sandu, who has soundly opposed Russia's war on Ukraine, has accused the Kremlin of attempting to destabilize the small Balkan nation of some 3.6 million people.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-negotiations- zelenskyy-trump-peace/33608719.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.