Ukrainian and US officials meet in Florida to discuss proposals to end Russia’s war

Ukrainian negotiators have met US officials in Florida to thrash out details of Washington’s proposed framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts.

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio; the special envoy, Steve Witkoff; and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law; sat down with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday before planned US talks this week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.

Rustem Umerov, the secretary of the national security and defence council in Ukraine, posted a photo of the meeting on X and described it as focusing on “steps toward achieving a just peace”.

A source close to the Ukrainian delegation later told AFP the talks were “not easy” and “the search for formulations and solutions continues. Everyone is interested in a practical result so that there is a subject for further negotiations between the US and Russia.”

Diplomats focused on revisions to a proposed 28-point plan developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow. That plan has been criticised as being too weighted toward Russian demands. As the meeting began on Sunday, Rubio focused on reassuring Ukraine.

Rubio said: “The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war. But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.”

“This is not just about peace deals,” he added as the teams sat down at the Shell Bay Club, a golf and racket club developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach.

Umerov responded to Rubio by expressing his country’s appreciation for US efforts, a message geared toward Trump, who has previously claimed that Ukraine has not been sufficiently grateful for US assistance during the war. “US is supporting us. US is working beside us,” he said.

Rubio told reporters afterwards that the session was productive but more work remains in the search for a peace deal.

“It’s not just about the terms that end fighting,” Rubio said. “It’s also about the terms that set up Ukraine for long-term prosperity … I think we build on that today, but there’s more work to be done.”

He added: “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow, although we’ve also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side, but we have a pretty good understanding of their views as well.”

Rubio also said the aim is to create a pathway that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent.

“We continue to be realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, particularly given the fact that as we’ve made progress. I think there is a shared vision here that this is not just about ending the war ... it is about securing Ukraine’s future, a future that we hope will be more prosperous than it’s ever been,” he said.

At least six people were killed and dozens wounded across Ukraine over the weekend. A drone attack on the outskirts of Kyiv on Saturday night had killed one person and wounded 11, the regional governor said.

A Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks by naval drones on two oil tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil.

The talks focused on details of a draft framework to end the war, more than three years after Russian forces launched their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The US has pared back an initial draft after criticism from Kyiv and Europe that it was too favourable towards Russia, but the contents of the latest proposals remain unclear. Witkoff, a New York property developer turned Trump official, is expected to travel to Moscow next week.

Kyiv’s first deputy foreign minister, Sergiy Kyslytsya, who was also part of the delegation, wrote a message on X ahead of the meeting. “As a weatherman would say, there’s the inherent difficulty in forecasting because the atmosphere is a chaotic system where small changes can lead to large outcomes,” the post said, accompanied by a photo of the overcast Miami skyline.

A fire burns at a residential building after a Russian attack outside Kyiv on Sunday. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

The original 28-point US-Russian plan was drawn up last month by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, and Witkoff. It called on Ukraine to withdraw from cities it controls in the eastern Donbas region, limit the size of its army, and not join Nato. Washington’s original proposal – drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies – would have involved Kyiv’s withdrawal from its eastern Donetsk region and the US’s de facto recognition of Donetsk, Crimea and Luhansk as Russian.

During negotiations last weekend in Switzerland – led by Rubio and Ukrainian negotiators – the plan was revised substantially. Kyiv and its European partners say the existing frontline has to be the starting point for territorial discussions. They say there can be no recognition of land seized by Russia militarily, and that Kyiv should make its own decisions on whether to join the EU and Nato – something the Kremlin wants to veto or impose conditions on.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he expected that the results of recent meetings with the US in Geneva would be “hammered out”.

The US talks come amid turbulence for the Ukrainian government. Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was forced to resign on Friday after his flat was searched by anti-corruption officials investigating a kickback scheme.

Yermak had been the lead negotiator in talks with the US. Zelenskyy has said the Ukrainian delegation in Florida includes Andrii Hnatov, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister, and Rustem Umerov, head of the security council.

Ukraine is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a deal while Zelenskyy finds himself in increasing difficulty. Russia is making incremental gains on the frontline and Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.

Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian ambassador to Britain and former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, who is considered a potential challenger for the future presidency, wrote in the Telegraph: “We are in an extremely difficult situation, where a rushed peace will only lead to a devastating defeat and loss of independence.”

He said “effective security guarantees” were essential to any framework.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is to meet Zelenskyy in Paris on Monday. “Peace is within reach, if Vladimir Putin abandons his delusional hope of reconstituting the Soviet empire by first subjugating Ukraine,” the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told La Tribune Dimanche.

Barrot said: “Vladimir Putin must accept the ceasefire or accept exposing Russia to new sanctions that will exhaust its economy, as well as intensified European support for Ukraine.”

Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press contributed reporting