President Volodymyr Zelensky’s planned Oct. 26 trip to Brussels descended into a diplomatic guessing game, with conflicting signals from his own team leaving EU and NATO officials scrambling to establish whether he was coming — and who, if anyone, was supposed to meet him.
At the center of the confusion was a proposed four-way meeting between Ukraine, the U.S., the EU and NATO on efforts to end Russia’s war. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected to join the talks and brief European officials on their recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the meeting was never officially confirmed. An official from Zelensky’s office leaked word to the press that the president would come anyway, setting off a scramble among European officials to prepare for a visit that remained uncertain.
The result was a rare public breakdown in coordination: Ukrainian officials gave reporters one account, European officials prepared to travel to Brussels, and Kyiv ultimately pointed to a change in U.S. plans to explain the confusion.
As a result, European officials began the day scrambling to answer the most basic question: Was the meeting even happening?
A trip announced, then thrown into doubt
The first indication that something might be in the works came from Zelensky himself.
In an interview with Ukrainian state television on Oct. 25, the Ukrainian president said a meeting was expected in Brussels "this week."
"We had a briefing from the Americans, and now they no longer want just a briefing — they want to have a broad discussion about security, guarantees, the EU, and participation," he said. "And they want a meeting this week in Brussels."
Yet the plans appeared to change almost as quickly as they emerged. A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent late on Oct. 25 that Zelensky had planned to visit Brussels but that the trip had since been called off.
By the morning of Oct. 26, the story appeared to have changed again.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing unnamed sources in Zelensky's team, reported that the Ukrainian leader was going to Brussels.
Ukrainian and European journalists began reporting the visit, while EU and NATO officials appeared to be hearing about it at roughly the same time as everyone else.
Even after it became clear there would be no meeting in Brussels, European media reported it was canceled, even though it had never been confirmed in the first place.
The European Commission offered little clarity, saying it continued to participate in talks and efforts with allies and partners to achieve a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, but had "no further information to share." Behind the scenes, European officials were trying to work out whether the reports were real.
One senior EU official told the Kyiv Independent they had no idea Zelensky was coming.
"Now we are in fact trying to assess if they are surprise visiting," the official said. "We are leaving for Canada and do not currently expect to have such a meeting."
"We are traveling to Canada and not expecting visitors."
The timing made the confusion particularly awkward.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa were preparing to travel to Montreal for the Canada-EU Summit — hardly the ideal moment to improvise a high-level meeting with the Ukrainian president.
Washington's plans may have changed
Part of the confusion appears to have stemmed from uncertainty over the U.S. delegation. Witkoff and Kushner had been expected to join the meeting, but Kyiv learned that Trump had decided to keep them in Washington around the time of Israel's Oct. 27 elections.
"Donald wants those two to be in Washington with him," a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent.
Without the two envoys, the meeting seemed pointless.
When Ukrainian reporters pressed Zelensky's office for confirmation that the Ukrainian president would travel to Brussels, presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said Kyiv could not confirm the meeting "due to a change in plans on the part of the U.S."
That explanation helped clarify why the plans might have shifted, but it did little to explain why European officials had been left trying to determine whether the Ukrainian president was arriving in the first place.
A communications breakdown
The conflicting accounts sparked a heated exchange among senior members of Zelensky's communications team over why reporters had received different information about the trip, the Kyiv Independent can reveal.
One Ukrainian official suggested the confusion may have stemmed from a simple problem: not everyone on the team is "on the same page."
A senior EU official offered a more diplomatic — if pointed — assessment of the recurring coordination challenges.
"We love (Ukrainians), but (they are) sometimes a bit chaotic."
The episode came as Kyiv and its partners were trying to coordinate the next stages of talks to end Russia's war. On Oct. 23, Zelensky said Ukrainian, Russian, and U.S. negotiating teams would meet in Abu Dhabi in November to begin peace talks.
An EU official told the Kyiv Independent that European partners still expected another round of discussions on the continent before those multilateral talks.
"We do expect a session of talks in Europe in the coming weeks before the expected Abu Dhabi multilateral talks," the official said.
Whether that meeting will take place remains uncertain.
"That may or may not happen given the temperaments of all involved."