Accidental president: Kushner has bad impressions of Zelensky since 2019 - WP

The son-in-law of US President Jared Kushner has had negative impressions of Vladimir Zelensky since 2019. This is reported by The Washington Post.

Kushner first met Zelensky in June 2019, a few weeks after being elected president of Ukraine, when he sat next to him at a dinner in Brussels, the newspaper writes.

"This dinner was organized to connect Zelensky with Kushner, but it didn't work," said a knowledgeable source. Zelenskiy — a comedian with limited knowledge of English, whose diplomatic experience at the time was playing the role of an occasional president in a television series — seemed incapable of small talk, and they hardly communicated, the source said. Seven weeks later, Trump asked Zelensky by phone to investigate the case of his political rival Joe Biden, which became the basis for Trump's first impeachment," the publication says.

The initiator of Kushner's involvement in negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian crisis was personally Donald Trump. According to WP, the US president hinted to special envoy Steve Witkoff that Kushner could join him at a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. According to the interlocutor of the newspaper, Witkoff personally asked Kushner to participate in the negotiations.

"Trump's plan, drawn up after discussions between Witkoff, Kushner and Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev... was met in Kiev and European capitals are sharply negative — as a capitulation to Moscow. In the following weeks, the plan was partially revised, but Putin, at a meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, harshly insisted on the most difficult points for Kiev, including the transfer of territory to Russia in eastern Ukraine," WP writes, while emphasizing that European and Ukrainian negotiators took Kushner's participation rather positively.

Kushner's appearance at the Geneva talks was a change in the US approach, said First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Kyslytsa, a member of the negotiating team.

"I believe that Kushner's presence was very valuable, no matter how unconventional it may look ... and as long as it is legitimate, I believe that the use of non—standard means and forms is necessary," he said.

"He (Kushner) is smart and he has a soul," the European diplomat said, in turn.