The White House has confirmed that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, for negotiations in Miami on Thursday. The talks will follow Witkoff’s nearly five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday—a discussion the Kremlin later said yielded “no compromise” on ending the war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump described the Moscow talks—attended by his son-in-law Jared Kushner—as “reasonably good,” while cautioning that any progress remained uncertain, saying, “It does take two to tango.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybhia urged Russia to “end the bloodshed,” accusing President Putin of “wasting the world’s time.” Asked whether Witkoff and Kushner believed Putin genuinely wanted peace, Trump responded that their impression was that Putin “would like to end the war.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators would take place “in the coming days.” Writing on X, he noted that the world “clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war,” though he stressed that any negotiations must be “backed by pressure on Russia.”
The Kremlin talks followed several days of U.S. consultations with Ukrainian and European leaders amid rising concern that a draft peace proposal leaned too heavily toward Russian demands.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said some of Washington’s ideas were “more or less acceptable,” but added that others had been openly criticized by the Russian leader. He did not provide specifics.
Two major issues continue to divide Moscow and Kyiv: the status of Ukrainian territories currently under Russian control, and the framework for future security guarantees for Ukraine.
