Zelenskiy hopes for meeting with US and Russia during G20 summit

KYIV, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Ukraine, the United States and Russia could meet during a G20 summit in the US but Washington and Moscow have not confirmed the meeting and other venues are also possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.

The Group of 20 major economies, which includes the US and Russia but not Ukraine, is due to hold a summit in Miami in December.

“The meeting could then take place in the United States during the G20 summit. But there has been no confirmation yet from either Russia or the United States. It could also be held in a European country,” Zelenskiy told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat.

He added: “This meeting could take place in one of the Middle Eastern countries. The United States has consistently mentioned the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.”

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian negotiators had spoken to US officials on Friday but gave no other details. He also said that Europe needed its own track for talks with Russia, with which relations are strained by Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has declined to impose tougher sanctions on Russia over the more than four-year-old war, and Zelenskiy has criticised Trump for lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports.

STARLINK

Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian military was unable to use its interceptors against Russian drone attacks because of speed restrictions placed on services provided by satellite company Starlink.

“Today, our interceptor drones are not operating because of speed limitations,” Zelenskiy said.

He said Ukraine had been told that the speed restrictions had been caused by technical issues but that tests of Starlink on the territory of the European Union had shown there were no such issues there.

Trump said on Friday he did not think either he or Elon Musk – whose company SpaceX developed the Starshield system used by Ukraine’s military – was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access in a way that affected its military operations against Russia.

The reduction in services provided by the satellite company interrupted communications with headquarters and caused internet speeds to drop.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Pavel Polityuk and Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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