US negotiators met with Russian officials in Florida to conduct a new round of discussions regarding the conflict in Ukraine, in the context of the Trump administration pushing the parties towards an agreement to end the fighting.
The meeting in Miami took place on December 20, after the US had private exchanges with Ukrainian and European delegations, revolving around a peace plan under development.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's special delegate, Mr. Kirill Dmitriev, said that the discussions with US special delegate Steve Witkoff and Mr. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law, took place in a constructive direction and will continue. The White House confirmed that the discussions that day had ended, but did not comment further on the content.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also a national security adviser, has left open the possibility of participating in negotiations. Previously, US, Ukrainian and European officials said they had made some progress on ensuring security for Kiev, although it was unclear whether these terms would be accepted by Moscow. A Russian source said the possibility of a direct meeting between the Russian delegation and Ukrainian negotiators had been ruled out.
In Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to support the US proposal for tripartite talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia, if it helped promote Prisoner exchanges and pave the way for high-level meetings. He said Washington was proposing a meeting between the three countries' national security advisers.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to maintain a tough stance. At his annual press conference in Moscow, he affirmed Russia's conditions to end the conflict unchanged, including asking Ukraine to abandon its ambitions to join NATO and withdraw from four regions that Russia claims sovereignty over. Ukraine insists it will not cede territory that Russia has not yet controlled.
Head of the Ukrainian negotiation delegation Rustem Umerov said that the talks with the US and Europe have agreed to continue coordination in the coming time. Foreign Minister Rubio said that there has been some progress, but the path to a final agreement still has many obstacles.
