Miami — U.S., European and Ukrainian officials wrapped three days of talks in Florida aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine with what Washington called “productive” progress toward a common position and a path to formal security guarantees for Kyiv.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said the Miami discussions were focused on aligning the parties around a U.S.-drafted, 20-point plan for ending the conflict and on mapping “timelines” and “sequencing of next steps.” The sessions are part of an accelerated push by President Donald Trump to secure a settlement to the nearly four-year war, even as Moscow insists on keeping Ukrainian territory it has seized and Kyiv refuses to cede ground.
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Witkoff, who was joined in Miami by senior adviser Jared Kushner, met Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, before holding talks Friday with European and Ukrainian officials and then a separate meeting with Ukraine’s delegation led by senior official Rustem Umerov. In his readout Friday, Witkoff did not mention the exchange with the Russians.
He said the U.S.-Ukraine meeting centered on four pillars: further development of the 20-point plan; a multilateral security-guarantee framework; a U.S. security-guarantee framework for Ukraine; and a package on economics and prosperity to help rebuild the country after the war. U.S., European and Ukrainian officials earlier in the week reported progress on security guarantees for Kyiv, though it remains uncertain whether terms that emerge from the talks will be acceptable to the Kremlin.
“Peace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future,” Witkoff said.
The Miami round is the latest in a series of quiet contacts among the United States, Russia and Ukraine as Washington tests whether a staged plan — pairing security commitments and economic reconstruction with steps on the battlefield and at the negotiating table — can unlock a cease-fire and a broader settlement. People familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments said prior to the talks that Putin has not abandoned ambitions to absorb additional Ukrainian territory.
Responding to a Reuters report Friday on those assessments, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wrote on X that U.S. intelligence has concluded Russia “does not currently have the capability to conquer and occupy all of Ukraine, let alone Europe.” The apparent gap between Russian intent and capacity underscores one of the central questions hanging over the Miami talks: whether Moscow will accept internationally backed security guarantees for Ukraine and a road map that does not ratify Russia’s territorial claims.
The politics of coercion also shadow the diplomacy. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, said it remains unclear whether Putin will accept the outlines of the current proposal. If he does not, Graham said, the administration should mirror its recent approach to oil tankers near Venezuela and seize ships carrying sanctioned Russian oil. He also urged the White House to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, citing the kidnapping of 20,000 Ukrainian children.
For Kyiv, the stakes are existential: securing credible, layered security guarantees and a sustained economic lifeline while resisting pressure to concede sovereignty. For Washington and its European partners, the goal is to translate battlefield realities into a durable framework that locks in Ukraine’s independence and reduces the risk of a wider European war.
No timeline for a formal agreement was announced. Witkoff said negotiators would continue refining the 20-point plan and the accompanying security and reconstruction tracks in the days ahead, signaling that the Miami talks were a staging point rather than a culmination.
As the war grinds on, with shelling and missile strikes continuing across eastern and southern Ukraine, the Miami talks underscored both the urgency and the fragility of the moment: progress on paper, unresolved questions in Moscow, and a battlefield that remains volatile.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
