US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has hailed talks on ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine as “productive and constructive”, after holding separate meetings with Ukrainian, European and Russian negotiators in the state of Florida.
The talks in Miami on Sunday were the latest in a series of meetings between the US, Russia and Ukraine on a 20-point plan touted by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year-old war.
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Despite the optimism from the US, there have been no clear signals of imminent resolutions to key hurdles, including on the issue of the territory Russia has seized during the conflict.
Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Saturday, held talks on Sunday with officials from Ukraine and Europe. He then held separate talks with the Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined the meetings.
Witkoff, in a joint statement with Umerov, called Sunday’s talks “productive and constructive”, saying they focused on a “shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and Europe”.
“Particular attention was given to discussing timelines and the sequencing of next steps,” they said.
Witkoff and Umerov said that bilateral discussions between Ukrainian and US officials on Sunday focused on developing and aligning positions on four key documents: the 20-point plan, a “multilateral security guarantee framework,” a “US Security guarantee framework for Ukraine”, and an “economic & prosperity plan”.
In a separate X post that used some of the same language, Witkoff said his talks with Dmitriev were also “productive and constructive”.
“Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said in the post. “Russia highly values the efforts and support of the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and re-establish global security.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin with presidential aide Yury Ushakov [File/Handout: RIA Novosti via Getty Images]
Earlier on Sunday, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said that the changes requested by Ukraine and its European allies to the framework put forth by the US were not improving prospects for peace.
Ushakov said that Dmitriev was due to return to Moscow on Monday and would report to Putin on the outcome of his talks.
“After that, we will formulate the position with which we will proceed, including in our contacts with the Americans,” he said.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sees Europe as “pro-war” and argues that its participation in the talks only hinders them.
Separately on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin was ready to talk with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, after the latter said Europe should reach out to the Russian president to end the war.
Putin has “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron”, Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. “Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively.”
Macron’s office welcomed the Russian statement.
“It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed,” it said.
Trump first shared his plan consisting of 28 points to end the war in Ukraine last month, triggering immediate criticism from European leaders who said it echoed the Kremlin’s demands.
Zelenskyy has since said that Ukraine and its European allies have shared their own version of a 20-point plan, which was based on the initial plan put forward by the White House.
One of the key sticking points between Russia and Ukraine remains Russia’s demand to retain some of the land it has captured in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion after years of fighting in Ukraine’s east.
Zelenskyy has described the talks as “constructive” and said they were “moving at a fairly rapid pace”. He nevertheless cautioned that “much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real”.
He also hailed this week as “historic” for Ukraine, thanking Europe for pledging $100bn of funding over the next two years.
