Secret meetings between Ukraine’s top peace negotiator and FBI leaders have injected new uncertainty into the high-stakes talks to end the war there, according to diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.
Over the last several weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, flew to Miami three times to meet with President Donald Trump’s top envoy, Steve Witkoff, and discuss a proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.
But during his time in the United States, Umerov also held closed-door meetings with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, according to four people, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.
The meetings have caused alarm among Western officials who remain in the dark about their intent and purpose. Some said they believe Umerov and other Ukrainian officials sought out Patel and Bongino in the hopes of obtaining amnesty from any corruption allegations the Ukrainians could face. Others worry the newly established channel could be used to exert pressure on Zelensky’s government to accept a peace deal, proposed by the Trump administration, containing steep concessions for Kyiv.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Washington Olha Stefanishyna confirmed Umerov’s meeting with the FBI and told the Washington Post he “only covered national security related issues” that could not be disclosed publicly.
An FBI official said the Umerov meetings included discussion of the two countries’ shared law enforcement and national security interests. The topic of white collar corruption in Ukraine came up in one of the meetings but was not the main focus, the official said. Any suggestion that Patel’s discussions were inappropriate is “complete nonsense,” the official added.
The two FBI leaders have criticized Ukraine in various public comments. Patel in March questioned the scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine and urged Congress to investigate whether any U.S. funds sent there were misused. Bongino has accused Zelensky of covering up the allegedly corrupt activities of President Joe Biden’s son, whose board seat on a Ukrainian energy company has faced intense scrutiny. Trump “is very suspicious of Zelensky, because of what he and some of the people in his government did to sweep under the rug the Joe Biden madness,” Bongino said in February.
A White House official said “U.S. officials regularly communicate with world leaders about national security issues of shared interest.” The official added that Trump’s national security team has been “speaking with both the Russians and the Ukrainians to facilitate a deal to end the war” and that anyone raising concerns about the FBI meetings “are not privy to these diplomatic conversations and have no idea what they are talking about.”
A representative of Zelensky’s office declined to comment on any specific meetings but insisted that “it is stupid to link everything to ‘corruption.’”
The New York Post noted Umerov’s meeting with Patel in an article published Nov. 28. Bongino’s meeting with Umerov has not been previously reported.
The discussions are happening at a critical moment for Ukraine. It is under pressure by the Trump administration to agree to an end-of-war proposal with huge implications for the country’s borders and territorial integrity.
It is also facing its most far-reaching corruption scandal since Zelensky took office in 2019. Ukrainian investigators alleged last month that $100 million had been stolen from the country’s energy sector through graft and kickbacks.
Eight people, including Zelensky’s former business partner, are accused of embezzlement, money laundering and illicit self-dealing. Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, the second most powerful person in Ukraine, resigned in late November after his house was raided. Another close former ally of Zelensky, Oleksiy Chernyshov, who served as deputy prime minister, is accused by Ukrainian authorities of receiving $1.3 million in kickbacks.
“They do have a massive corruption situation going on there,” Trump told reporters this week, noting that the scandal was generating calls for elections in Ukraine. “People are asking this question: When do they have an election?”
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted Kyiv to enact martial law, including the postponement of presidential and parliamentary elections.
There is speculation inside and outside Kyiv over whether Umerov, who also serves as Ukraine’s national security adviser, may be implicated in the expanding embezzlement investigation, particularly as the country’s anti-corruption officials expand their probe into the defense sector. Umerov previously served as Ukraine’s defense minister.
“I was surprised they sent him to negotiate given what’s being said about his potential involvement in the scandal,” said Angela Stent, a former intelligence officer in the George W. Bush administration and scholar at Georgetown University.
Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Volodymyr Ariev told the Post that it was irresponsible to keep Umerov on as top negotiator while he’s under a cloud of suspicion. “A person who has grown a tail with corruption allegations shouldn’t chair fateful negotiations until they cut the tail,” Ariev said.
Umerov’s defenders say he is an asset to Kyiv: His easygoing demeanor and proficient English have created a better rapport with U.S. officials than they had with Yermak, whom Zelensky relied on heavily before he resigned.
But his FBI meetings have raised suspicion among Ukraine’s Western backers given the presence of Patel, who became a focal point of Trump’s first impeachment, which centered on the president’s threat to revoke U.S. aid to Ukraine to extract information on Hunter Biden’s activities in the country. Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
Fiona Hill, a former Trump administration official, testified before Congress that Patel had involved himself in Ukraine issues in a manner that went beyond the scope of his job as a White House adviser, according to what she was told by colleagues. The impeachment report released by House Democrats also highlighted Patel’s discussions with Rudy Giuliani before the Trump administration’s suspension of $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.
Hill told the Post for this report that Patel’s reemergence is “likely to be viewed with even more concern and consternation in Europe.”
Patel has always denied he had a back channel with Trump on Ukraine during his first term and said his discussions with Giuliani were unrelated to Ukraine.
FBI officials have worked for years with Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, or NABU, to help the government in Kyiv overcome endemic corruption stemming from its Soviet past. But high-level meetings between a top Ukrainian negotiator and the director of the FBI are not common.
“It is unusual for someone in that job to have a meeting with the leadership of the FBI,” said Sam Charap, a former State Department official and scholar at the Rand Corporation.
A common theme of Trump’s Ukraine diplomacy, particularly as he has expressed frustration about delays in getting to a deal, is expanding the number of aides assigned to work on the issue. Besides Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff, a real estate magnate and longtime friend, Trump has also enlisted his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, an ally of Vice President JD Vance.
The growing number officials involved in the talks has caused miscommunication and confusion surrounding the deal’s terms and what the United States supports.
Several U.S. officials support a proposal in which Ukraine withdraws from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in exchange for other areas under Russian control, such as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Earlier this week, Zelensky pushed back against the idea of Ukraine relinquishing any territory. “Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,” Zelensky said after meeting with top European leaders. “That is what we are fighting for.”
But as negotiations have stalled, Russian forces have made advances in the East, exploiting Ukraine’s shortages in ammunition and fighters. It also continues to bomb Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, triggering rolling blackouts and raising fears of widespread outages this winter.
Trump has made clear his patience is wearing thin, and that if Ukraine doesn’t negotiate for land it could end up losing even more on the battlefield.
“You’re losing thousands of people a week,” Trump said. “It’s time to get that war settled.”
