Ukraine team arrives in US for Miami talks with Witkoff, Kushner
Ukrainian negotiators arrived in the United States on Saturday to meet with President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and military secretary Dan Driscoll on ending a nearly four-year war with Russia.
The talks, expected to focus on security guarantees and post-war recovery, will take place in Miami as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches and Moscow hammers Ukraine’s energy facilities in a freezing winter.
Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine has accelerated since the autumn; The Kremlin has insisted that if diplomacy fails, it will seize by force the rest of Ukrainian territory it claims is Russian.
Trump has pressed for an end to the war, Europe’s worst since World War II, and expressed frustration with both sides with no breakthrough on the horizon.
He also pressured Ukraine to accept peace terms, which Kiev said amounted to surrender.
“It has reached the United States,” said Kyrylo Budanov, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s new private secretary and head of the Ukrainian delegation.
He posted on social media that he and his team, including security chief Rustam Umerov and negotiator David Arakhamia, “will have an important meeting with our American partners on the details of the peace agreement.”
“A joint meeting is planned with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and (U.S. Army Secretary) Daniel Driscoll,” he said.
Kyiv wants clarity from its allies on post-war security guarantees.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States had said the day before that the talks would focus on security guarantees and post-war reconstruction.
Dispute between Kyiv and Washington continues; Kiev is seeking clarity on post-war security guarantees, which it sees as vital to deter Russia from invading again.
Zelensky hopes to sign the documents with the Americans at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, he told reporters including AFP on Friday.
– Thousands without electricity –
Territorial and security guarantees are at the forefront of remaining questions about the plan to end the war.
Britain and France signed a declaration of intent to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire; however, Moscow rejected this plan, warning that any foreign power would be a “legitimate target” for Moscow.
The Ukrainian team arrived in the United States as thousands of people in Kiev and the surrounding area were braving temperatures as low as -19°C with little or no warming.
Kiev said on Saturday that 56,000 families in the Bucha region outside Kiev, where Russian forces carried out atrocities in 2022, were left without electricity after nighttime Russian attacks.
Schools in Ukraine’s capital will be closed until February due to health concerns, officials said.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said there are electricity restrictions in most regions of Ukraine.
“A state of emergency has been declared in the Ukrainian energy sector due to continuous mass attacks by the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.
Russia occupies a large part of the south and east of Ukraine.
In the statement made on Saturday, it was stated that its forces captured two more Ukrainian villages in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
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