US envoy praises Zelenskyy after Trump’s censure of the Ukrainian leader

US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg, right, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talk during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

US President Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia said that he had held “extensive and positive discussions” with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the three-year war with Russia and praised the Ukrainian leader as an “embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”.

Retired US lieutenant general Keith Kellogg travelled to Kyiv on Wednesday before a planned news conference with Mr Zelenskyy on Thursday was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity.