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 was supposed to meet him.

At the center of the confusion

While 55% pointed to genuine efforts to tackle corruption, 41% said Ukraine was "hopelessly corrupt," a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found.

A senior Ukrainian official previously told the Kyiv Independent that the batch awaiting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's approval was "significant."

"The agreement opens the way for an exchange of experience," Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said.