Ukraine replaces chief negotiator as Zelensky dispatches team for urgent US peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says a delegation headed by Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov is on its way to the United States to continue talks on an agreement to end Russia’s war.

Umerov has been put in charge of the Ukrainian delegation after the previous lead negotiator, Mr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption detectives searched his apartment.

Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out” on Sunday.

Those meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counter-offer to proposals laid out by US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to leaders in Kyiv almost two weeks ago.

“Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X.

His country was talking to the US in the most constructive way possible, Mr Zelensky said, stressing that “Ukraine is working for a dignified peace”.

Mr Yermak told the New York Post hours after his resignation that he was “going to the front”.

“I am an honest and decent person,” he said.

Ukraine is facing significant pressure from the United States to agree to the terms of a peace deal while Mr Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation since the early days of Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Political blowback from a $US100 million ($A153 million) energy sector corruption scandal has resulted in two ministers and now the president’s right-hand man being ousted.

Former defence minister Umerov’s name had also been mentioned in connection with the corruption probe but he has denied any involvement.

He has also previously conducted negotiations with the Russian side on several occasions this year, with results including exchanges of prisoners and the remains of dead soldiers.

Meanwhile, Russia is making incremental gains on the front line and Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in an address last week that he would not betray the country.

with DPA