White House officials ready to meet with Zelenskyy in Munich for talks on Russia's war on Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the briefing with President of the European Investment Bank Nadia Calvino in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

PARIS — U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior advisers are expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss the path toward ending Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, told The Associated Press that the White House is ironing out details of the highly anticipated talks during the annual summit for international security discussions.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg are among the Trump administration officials traveling to Germany for the summit, and all could be involved in the critical talks with Zelenskyy and his team on the sidelines of the event.

“Knowing how the process works, it would probably be better for Zelenskyy if we all met together and talked through it as a group,” Kellogg said in an interview.

Trump on Monday said he’d “probably” speak with Zelenskyy this week.

The U.S. president said administration officials also would use the Munich gathering to get a better gauge of the support that European nations are willing to provide Kyiv as it tries to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grinding invasion.

Kellogg and other administration officials have already been meeting with European diplomats in Washington to discuss Ukraine.

But the talks in Munich give Trump’s top aides their first major opportunity to deliver a message about the new administration’s foreign policy outlook and its approach to a war that Trump has said is costing too much American taxpayer money.

He complained anew about Europe not doing enough in its own backyard. Trump argued that countries on the continent should repay the U.S. what Washington has spent helping Kyiv.

“We will deliver our expectation to the allies,” Kellogg said. “When we come back from Munich — we want to deliver to the president the options, so when he does get (directly) involved in the peace process, he knows what it will look like for him.”

Trump, who had previously said he would bring about a rapid end to the war, recently suggested that administration officials have already begun talks with Russian officials. Trump has said his administration has been in contact with Putin but he has declined to provide further detail about the purported talks.

Trump also has in recent days said he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. The president told reporters Monday that his aides were working toward striking such a deal.

“We have people over there today who are making a deal that as we give money, we get minerals and we get oil and we get all sorts of things,” Trump said. ”Because why are we doing this?”

Kellogg said a rare earth deal could help ensure continued American economic support for Ukraine.

“The answer to that is yes,” Kellogg, said of the potential for such a deal keeping U.S. support for Ukraine flowing. “The economics of that would allow for further support to the Ukrainians.”

Vance will lead the delegation to the security conference and is set to arrive in Munich on Thursday as part of his first overseas trip since becoming vice president.

He’s now in Paris attending an artificial intelligence summit and is set to meet Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The war in Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda in all those meetings.

Like Trump, Vance has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. sending billions in military aid to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden.

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Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

AP writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed reporting.