DOMINANT ANGLE
Kyiv takes away from the threat-then-dialogue sequence with Iran a pattern it hopes to see repeated on its own Russian dossier, carried by the same emissaries Witkoff and Kushner.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Trump announced three hours of "very productive" talks with Iranian officials in New York, led on the American side by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, a few hours after threatening to "annihilate" the Islamic Republic at the UN.
- 02
Most of the Iranian delegation left the room during Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly.
- 03
From the same podium, Trump said he hopes for peace between Ukraine and Russia "sooner than people understand", after signing the sanctions bill targeting Russia initiated by Senator Lindsey Graham.
ANALYSIS
Kyiv, September 23, 2026. A single Tuesday at the United Nations tribune was enough to unfold, before the eyes of Ukrainian diplomats, a method that Kyiv is beginning to recognize in the way Donald Trump handles his war files: public threat first, negotiation table next. The American president warned that he should "annihilate" the Islamic Republic of Iran if there is no agreement, prompting the departure of most of the Iranian delegation during his speech. A few hours later, he revealed that American and Iranian officials had just held three hours of talks in New York, which he described as "very productive", led on the American side by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — the same two emissaries who traveled to Moscow and then Kyiv earlier this month, according to Kyiv Post.
For the Ukrainian press, this sequence is not read in isolation: it echoes its own. It was on the sidelines of his bilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday that Trump mentioned the Iranian talks, adding that Vladimir Putin "is ready to meet" his Ukrainian counterpart and "wants to see the war end". Ukrinform notes that before the same tribune, the American president said he hopes for peace between Ukraine and Russia "faster than people understand", adding that he "regularly" looks at photos from the front and no longer wants to see them. On the same day, according to the agency, Trump signed the law on sanctions targeting Russia, carried by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, which targets Russian banks, energy and defense companies as well as the "ghost fleet" used to circumvent restrictions.
Kyiv retains a cautious parallel rather than a promise: if Washington obtains a second meeting with Tehran "in the very near future", in Trump's words, the same scheme — maximum pressure followed by diplomatic opening — could apply to the Russian-Ukrainian file, where Witkoff and Kushner have already made multiple trips. The question of a Putin-Zelensky summit on the sidelines of the December G20 remains, with the location still uncertain and no date set yet.
