As President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to receive Washington’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, in Kyiv this weekend, he does so out of stark diplomatic necessity. As the leader of a nation fighting an existential war, Zelensky has no choice but to keep an open channel to the current US administration, regardless of who sits across the table. But make no mistake: While official protocol demands a polite handshake at the presidential palace, the Ukrainian public and their allies across Europe owe these visitors no pretense of warmth.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The envoys finally arrive in Kyiv only after pilgrimages to Moscow – and only after routing this very trip through Russia first. Their track record reflects a worldview that treats a nation’s battle for survival as a transactional real estate deal. The rhetoric framing these missions has systematically avoided naming the root cause of Ukraine’s suffering: Vladimir Putin and Russia’s naked imperial aggression. Instead, Washington’s approach has framed Russia’s unprovoked war not as a moral outrage or an international crime, but as a minor inconvenience to be settled via mineral rights, backroom concessions, and financial fallout for an inner circle. The truth must be spoken plainly to these emissaries: You are not welcome here unless you are bringing something that rehabilitates you and your boss. Not only in the eyes of Ukrainians, but Europeans, the free world, and the many Americans who have been disgusted with your prevarication and cynical business-above-all-else approach.