Ukrainian delegation meet US officials in Florida for fresh talks on Trump’s plan to end war
By Jennifer Hansler, Tim Lister, Daria Tarasova-Markina, CNN
(CNN) — A Ukrainian delegation has begun fresh talks in Florida with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff over the US-backed plan to end the war.
Before the meeting began, Rubio said the goal of the negotiations was to create “a pathway forward that leaves Ukraine sovereign, independent, and prosperous.”
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said the process would address “the security of Ukraine, about no repetition of aggression of Ukraine, about prosperity of Ukraine, about how to rebuild Ukraine.”
Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was appointed to head the Ukrainian team after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday amid a corruption scandal.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also attending the meeting in Miami.
Ukraine is seeking international security guarantees as part of any agreement to end the war and a ceasefire based on the current frontlines. It has rejected ceding any territory not already occupied by Russian forces.
But Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has shown little signal he’s ready to offer concessions, saying that the war would only end “once Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy.”
Rubio met Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva last weekend, when substantial revisions were made to the original 28-point blueprint developed by Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund and a Kremlin special envoy.
Ukraine’s European allies said that the original plan – which was seen as highly favorable to Russia – would require “additional work.”
Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said last week the Kremlin had received the latest version of the plan.
“This isn’t an official one, but we do have the document. We haven’t discussed it with anyone yet because the points in it require truly serious analysis and discussion,” Ushakov said.
After suggesting that he wanted Ukraine to agree to a deal by Thursday of last week, Trump backed away from imposing any kind of deadline.
“You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over,” he said.
The negotiations come against a backdrop of persistent Russian missile and drone attacks against cities and infrastructure across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that in the last week, Russia had used nearly 1,400 attack drones, 1,100 guided aerial bombs, and 66 missiles in attacks.
For its part, Ukraine continues to target Russian energy and defense infrastructure with long-range drones and domestically manufactured missiles. Ukraine also used maritime drones on Friday and Saturday in strikes in the Black Sea against two sanctioned oil tankers used to ship Russian oil.
The two tankers, which flew under the Gambian flag, were damaged but not sunk.
As the negotiations continue, Ukraine’s former military chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who is considered a potential rival to Zelensky, wrote in the Daily Telegraph Sunday that “war does not always end with the victory of one side and the defeat of the other.”
“We Ukrainians strive for complete victory, but we cannot reject the option of a long-term end to the war,” Zaluzhnyi wrote.
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