Ukraine and US negotiators to meet after Russia visit, White House says

The White House confirmed that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Ukrainian National Security Council Chairman Rustam Omerov for talks in Miami on Thursday.

The meeting comes after Witkov spent nearly five hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, in negotiations that the Kremlin said did not result in a “settlement” on ending the war in Ukraine.

US President Trump said that the talks, which were also attended by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, were “reasonably good,” but added that it was too early to say what would happen because “it takes two people to tango.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sepia said Russia must “end the bloodshed” and accused Putin of “wasting the world’s time.”

When a reporter asked him whether Witkopf and Kushner believed Putin really wanted to end the war, Trump said: “[Putin] Want to end the war. That was their impression.”

Earlier Wednesday, Zelensky said that a meeting between American and Ukrainian negotiators would be held “in the coming days.”

“At the moment, the world clearly feels that there is a real opportunity to end the war,” Zelensky said in a statement on Channel X.

But he added that the negotiations must be “backed by pressure on Russia.”

The US-Russian talks in the Kremlin came days after US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns were expressed that the draft peace agreement was too biased towards Russia’s demands.

“Some of the American proposals seem fairly acceptable, although they need further discussion,” Ushakov said, adding that others had been publicly criticized by the Russian leader.

Although Ushakov did not go into further details, there are still at least two main points of contention between Moscow and Kiev: the fate of Ukrainian territories seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Kiev and its European partners believe that even if a peace deal is reached, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future is to grant Ukraine NATO membership.

Russia strongly opposes such a proposal, and Trump has also repeatedly indicated that he has no intention of allowing Kiev to join the alliance.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO was a “key issue” taken up in Moscow.

Ushakov, one of Putin’s senior foreign policy advisers, noted that Russia’s negotiating position had been strengthened by recent successes on the battlefield.

He added that Russian soldiers “helped make our foreign partners’ assessments of ways to reach a peace settlement more appropriate.”

Before the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was photographed in military uniform at a Russian command centre, where he was briefed by commanders who claimed to have taken control of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.

Fighting continues in Pokrovsk and Russian forces do not control the entire city, but Russian officials clearly believe the United States has heard their message about military gains.

Russian forces have made some gradual progress in the east and appear to have intensified their campaign in recent weeks. They seized about 701 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in November, according to an Agence France-Presse analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War, and now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Putin was ready to continue meeting with the Americans “as many times as needed.”

But as Russia and the United States become increasingly friendly, the gap between Moscow and Europe is widening.

Putin accused Europe of sabotaging Russia’s relations with the United States, making demands that Moscow cannot accept, and obstructing the peace process. Shortly before his meeting with Witkov and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that although he did not want conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war.”

UK government officials dismissed Putin’s message as “more Kremlin nonsense from a president who is not serious about peace.”

NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said peace talks were positive but Ukraine must be put “in the strongest position to continue fighting.”

EU member states have reached an agreement with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas before the end of 2027.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the “dawn of a new era”, under an agreement that means long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia will be banned from September 2027, and long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas will be banned from January 2027.

“We have chosen energy security and independence for Europe. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand strongly with Ukraine,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.

The Commission also proposes to raise 90 billion euros for Ukraine to finance its military and basic services while the war in Russia continues.

The plan requires either Belgium to agree to a “reparations loan” using frozen Russian assets held at a financial institution in Brussels, or the money will be financed by international borrowing.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko welcomed the proposal, which will cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs over the next two years.

Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets located on its territory, due to concerns about legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank also opposed the idea, saying it would not serve as a backstop for the reparations loan.

The proposed loan is smaller than the initially planned €140 billion loan, and German Foreign Minister Johan Wadevoll said: “We support this, and of course we take Belgium’s concerns seriously.”

In New York, the United States on Wednesday joined 90 other countries at the United Nations to demand that Russia “ensure the immediate, safe, and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly removed or deported,” and urged Moscow to stop the practice.

According to the Ukrainian government. More than 19,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia. The UK government estimates that around 6,000 Ukrainian children have been transferred to a network of “re-education camps” in Russia.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, partly on charges of illegal deportation of children. Putin and his government deny these accusations.