U.S. and Russian envoys met in Miami for the latest talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Moscow’s representative calling the discussions “constructive” as the Trump administration seeks to coax both sides toward a deal.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, told reporters the meeting with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was productive and would continue. A White House official said the talks had concluded for the day.
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“The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow,” Dmitriev said.
The Miami session followed U.S. consultations with Ukrainian and European officials, part of a push that has produced some reported progress on possible security guarantees for Kyiv. It remains unclear whether those terms would be acceptable to Moscow, and a Russian source told Reuters that any meeting between Dmitriev and Ukrainian negotiators was ruled out.
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would back a U.S. proposal for trilateral talks among national security advisers from the United States, Ukraine and Russia if it facilitates more prisoner exchanges and paves the way for meetings of national leaders. “America is now proposing a trilateral meeting with national security advisers, America, Ukraine, Russia,” Zelensky told local journalists.
Even as talks inch forward, U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin intends to capture all of Ukraine, according to sources familiar with those assessments—contradicting assertions by some U.S. officials that Moscow is ready for peace. Putin offered no compromise at his annual press conference in Moscow, insisting Russia’s terms for ending the war had not changed since June 2024: Kyiv must abandon its ambition to join NATO and withdraw entirely from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own.
Kyiv has said it will not cede land that Moscow’s forces have failed to seize in nearly four years of full-scale war since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said U.S. and European teams agreed to pursue their joint efforts after meetings in the United States and that he had informed Zelensky of the outcome. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rubio told reporters that progress has been made in discussions to end the war but there is still a way to go. “The role we’re trying to play is a role of figuring out whether there’s any overlap here that they can agree to, and that’s what we’ve invested a lot of time and energy and continue to do so. That may not be possible. I hope it is. I hope it can get done this month before the end of the year.”
No timetable for a broader agreement has been announced. Dmitriev said the Miami talks would continue, while Ukrainian officials signaled that prisoner exchanges and security guarantees remain priority tracks as the diplomatic push intensifies.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
