US envoy set for Kyiv talks after Trump rips Zelenskyy

KYIV: Donald Trump's special envoy was in Kyiv on Wednesday (Feb 19), saying he was there to "listen" to Kyiv's concerns, a day after the United States president tore into his Ukrainian counterpart in a surprise press conference.

Speaking on Tuesday, after Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia for their first high-level talks in over three years without Ukraine taking part, Trump appeared to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for having "started" the war.

"Today I heard, 'oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years ... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Zelenskyy had chided the US-Russia talks for not including Kyiv, saying efforts to end the war must be "fair and involve European countries".

Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv by train on Wednesday morning for what he said was a mission to "sit and listen" to Kyiv's concerns.

"We understand the need for security guarantees ... Part of my mission is to sit and listen and say: what are your concerns?" Kellogg said in a video posted by Ukraine's Suspilne news outlet.

Russia and the US agreed on Tuesday to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday praised the meetings in Saudi Arabia as a "very important step" towards a peace settlement.

TRUMP WANTS UKRAINE ELECTION

Trump has upended US foreign policy since coming to office last month, making support for Ukraine dependent on access to its rare minerals while echoing Russian President Vladimir Putin's positions on the conflict.

In his press conference on Tuesday, Trump pressed Zelenskyy to hold elections, one of Moscow's key demands for a peace deal.

"It's been a long time since we've had an election," said Trump.

"That's not a Russian thing, that's something coming from me, from other countries."

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 for a five-year term but has remained leader under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion.

Trump also claimed the Ukrainian leader's approval rating was "at four per cent".

Zelenskyy's popularity has eroded since the war began, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 per cent since the invasion, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Borys Filatov, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, appeared to push back at Trump's comments.

"We may or may not like Zelenskyy. We can scold him or we can praise him. We can condemn his actions or applaud them. Because he is OUR President," he said.

"And not a single lying creature in Moscow, Washington, or anywhere else has the right to open their mouths against him."

Trump's latest remarks are unlikely to allay fears among some European leaders, already worried Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent's security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal.

In Paris, France's President Emmanuel Macron was to host another meeting in Paris on Ukraine on Wednesday. In comments on Tuesday to the French media after the US-Russia talks, he suggested Trump could restart "useful dialogue" with Putin.

RUSSIAN STRIKES

Kellog's arrival came hours after Russian strikes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight left tens of thousands of people without power, Zelenskyy said on social media.

"At least 160,000 Odesa residents are now without heat and electricity," he said.

"We must remember that Russia is run by pathological liars and cannot be trusted - we must put pressure on them for the sake of peace."

The regional governor said four people had been wounded, including a child.

"As a result of a massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city, there is no electricity, water, and heating in a large part of the residential quarters," Gennadiy Trukhanov said on Telegram.

An air force statement said Odesa had been hit by an overnight attack, adding that of 167 drones, 106 had been intercepted while another 56 were "lost in the area" without causing damage.

For the past three years, Russia has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, as well as its towns and villages.

In Brussels, European Union diplomats said member states had on Wednesday agreed to a new round of sanctions against Russia. It will be formally adopted by EU foreign ministers on Monday, the third anniversary of Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.