Trump advisers and Ukrainian officials will meet for third day amid progress on peace plan | US news
Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said Friday they will meet for a third day of talks and urge Russia to remain committed to peace after making progress on creating a security framework for post-war Ukraine.
Officials meeting for a second day in Florida on Friday issued a joint statement offering broad brushstrokes about progress as Trump pushed Kiev and Moscow to accept a U.S.-brokered proposal to end nearly four years of war.
“Both sides agreed that real progress towards any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to make a serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps to reduce tensions and stop the killings,” the statement said. “The parties also separately reviewed Ukraine’s future prosperity agenda aimed at supporting post-war reconstruction, joint US-Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”
The meetings of US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner with Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov in Florida followed talks between Vladimir Putin and US envoys in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Friday’s session took place at Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, Florida, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by Witkoff’s real estate development company.
Previous diplomatic attempts to break the impasse proved fruitless, and the war, which has been raging for almost four years, continued unabated. Officials have kept the course of the latest talks largely secret, despite the leak of Trump’s initial 28-point plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his country’s delegation in Florida wanted to receive information from the United States about the talks in the Kremlin.
Zelenskyy and the European leaders who support him have repeatedly accused Putin of stalling peace talks as the Russian military tries to advance the invasion. Zelenskyy said in a video speech late Thursday that officials wanted to know “what other excuses Putin has found to prolong the war and put pressure on Ukraine.”
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Friday, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov praised Kushner for potentially playing a significant role in ending Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. Ushakov also participated in the talks held in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
“If any plan that would lead to a solution is put on paper, it will be Mr. Kushner’s pen that will show the way,” Ushakov said.
The senior Russian official’s complimentary comments about Kushner come at a time when Putin is trying to sow divisions between Trump and Ukraine and Europe, as Trump’s impatience with the conflict grows. Putin said his five-hour talks with Witkoff and Kushner this week were “necessary” and “useful” but that some of the proposals were unacceptable.
Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was a senior adviser to Trump during his first term and the president’s key figure in developing the Abraham Accords, which formalized trade and diplomatic ties between Israel and the trio of Arab nations.
Kushner played a more informal role in Trump’s second move, but Witkoff helped close the ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas this fall. Trump called Kushner again to collaborate with Witkoff to try to find an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ushakov, who accompanied Putin on his visit to India on Friday, repeated the Russian President’s recent criticism of Europe’s stance on peace talks. Kiev’s European allies are concerned about possible Russian aggression beyond Ukraine and want a possible peace deal with strong security guarantees.
Ushakov told Russia’s state-owned Zvezda TV that Kiev’s allies in Europe “consistently put forward demands that are unacceptable to Moscow.” “To put it mildly, the Europeans are not helping Washington and Moscow reach an agreement on Ukrainian issues.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he was making progress in gaining Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s support for peace efforts during his visit to Beijing.
“We had a thorough and honest exchange of views on all points and I found that the parties were willing. [Chinese] “As president, we will contribute to stability and peace,” Macron said.
The French president emphasized that Ukraine needs guarantees that Russia will not attack it again if an agreement is reached, and that Europe should have a say in the negotiations.
Macron said, “Unity between Americans and Europeans is essential on the Ukraine issue. I say it, I repeat it, I emphasize it. We need to work together.”
Officials said Russian drones hit a house in central Ukraine on Thursday night, killing a 12-year-old boy, while Ukraine’s long-range strikes reportedly targeted a Russian port and an oil refinery.
Vladyslav Animalenko, head of the regional military administration, said that in Russia’s attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, the house where the child was killed was destroyed and two women were injured.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 137 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types throughout the night.
Ukrainian drones attacked a port and an oil refinery in Russia overnight as part of Kiev’s campaign to disrupt Russian logistics, Ukraine’s general staff said.
In the statement, it was stated that unmanned aerial vehicles hit the Temryuk sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region and the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region and started a fire. Syzran is approximately 500 miles (800km) east of the Ukrainian border.
Russia’s defense ministry said its air defense systems alone intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea that Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
